We'll Meet Again
by Glitter Stars
Summary: Jess is a normal girl. She loves her boyfriend, fights with her sister, oh - and she's a witch. Things start to get confusing for her when outsider Luke turns up. Who is he? Does he know about the Night World? And have they met before...?
1. Chapters 1 to 7

_**Chapter One**_

The house was dark and cold. That's it, Jess told herself. As soon as she found Tally she was going to kill her. Actually, the first thing she would do would be to get the hell out of there, but right after that killing Tally would be next on the list.

A gust of wind blew in from the open window Jess had climbed in through. A shiver ran through her body. If only she'd listened to Caleb. He had warned her not to go. Whatever Tally was getting up to it was none of her business, but being the responsible big sister she was Jess felt as though it was her duty to stop Tally getting into trouble.

No one was home, she was pretty certain of that. There were no cars in the drive way and all the lights were off, but the Warners could return any minute. Jess didn't even want to think about what they'd do if they found the Devereaux girls creeping around their house. And she definitely didn't want to think about why Tally had broken in in the first place, although she could probably guess.

Jess stood at the foot of the stairs.

'Tally!' She called out in no more than a whisper.

She heard a floorboard creek above her. Slowly Jess began to climb the stairs. Once she had reached the top she saw a dim light coming from under one of the doors. Written on the door in big elaborate letters was the name LAILA.

I might have known, Jess thought. She walked forward and pushed the door open slowly. There, rifling through the dresser drawers was Tally, just as Jess had expected. Tally turned the flashlight she was holding on to Jess.

'What the hell are you doing here?!' Tally snarled.

Jess shielded her eyes from the blinding flashlight. 'I'd ask you the same question if it weren't so obvious!'

'Get out of here!' Tally snapped

'I'm not going anywhere without you,' Jess replied.

'Well then I guess you're just going to have to wait.' Tally went back to routing through the drawers.

'Tally, you know how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught.'

'_If_ we get caught. Which we won't.'

'Let's go Tally! I'm not kidding!'

'Relax,' Tally said with a satisfied grin. 'I've got what I came for.' Jess watched as Tally pocketed what looked like a necklace and slammed the dresser drawer shut.

'You put that back!' Jess demanded.

'Who's gonna make me?' Tally shot back. Suddenly the low rumble of a car engine broke the silence as the room was illuminated by approaching headlights.

'Come on, let's get out of here,' Tally said pushing past Jess.

'First, you need to put that necklace back where you found it. And anything else you've taken.'

'No way,' Tally said over her shoulder as she left the room. Jess followed as Tally fled down the stairs.

'Tally!'

'We don't have time to argue! Come on!' The two sisters scurried into the dining room and over to the open window. Tally handed the flashlight to Jess and clambered out of the window. Jess followed. The girls ran and ran until they were a safe distance away from the house.

'Whatever you're planning on doing Tally, forget it.'

'What's with the concern?' Tally asked smoothing down a stray lock of her red hair. 'Laila Warner hates us.'

'And I bet she'll hate us a whole lot more if she finds out you're working magic on her.'

'It's a teeny tiny little spell,' Tally chuckled. 'Designed to teach her that looking down on us the way she does, isn't a great idea.'

The two girls walked the rest of the way home in silence. Jess vowed to herself that she wouldn't let Tally do anything to harm Laila. It was true that there was no love lost between themselves and Laila, but that was besides the point. They couldn't just go around toying with humans.

For one thing they had a secret to protect. A secret that was already thinly veiled. Jess and Tally were witches. They belonged to the Night World. A secret society of witches, vampires and shapeshifters.

No human was allowed to find out about the Night World, but that didn't bother Tally and her friends. They used their powers to manipulate people an to get what they wanted. Jess and her friends on the other hand used their powers to help and to heal. Tally thought they were idiots.

That night Jess lay in bed tossing and turning, the blankets tangling around her restless body. When she finally drifted off to sleep a familiar scene began to unfold in her subconscious mind. It was a recurring dream, a dream that had become more and more persistent in the last few weeks.

Jess sat by the fire in a colonial style house, wearing colonial style clothes. In her arms was a tiny baby. Jess felt an overwhelming sense of love for the child, but at the same time she felt fearful. Cradling her baby carefully she got up from her chair and wandered over to the window.

She gazed out anxiously. She was waiting for him to return, the man she loved. But deep in her gut she feared that he wouldn't. She feared that they were going to kill him. Sighing heavily Jess turned from the window and paced back and forth. The words he had spoken to her before he had left resounded in her head.

_If I don't return tonight take it as a sign that I was unable to reason with them. You must leave and take Ava with you. I'll be fine. They won't hurt me, but they may hurt you. That's why you must get as far away from this place as possible. And don't worry, wherever you go, I'll find you. We'll be together again._

Suddenly the sound of galloping horse hooves jolted Jess. They were close. Too close. Jess hurried to the window. There were three men on horseback disappearing into the night. And there on the ground was a motionless figure, laying in a heap. A body. No!

Jess ran to the door and flung it open. As she ran down the steps she began sobbing uncontrollably. She rushed to his body, which lay face down in the dirtand knelt beside him, holding their baby close to her chest, tears streaming down her face. She placed a hand gently on his back, trying to rouse him, but it was no use. There were huge bloody tears at his throat. The vampires had gotten to him. He was dead.

Jess woke up abruptly. Her fingers clung to the blankets tightly, her eyes stung and her face was wet with tears. This was getting worse. Every night the feeling of despair deepened as she lost the man she loved. _Get a grip, _she told herself. _It's just a stupid dream._

She wiped the tears from her cheeks and began to untangle the blankets that were now tied up in knots around her legs. She took deep breaths as she settled back down, resting her head against the pillows, the feelings of raw grief beginning to subside. _It's just a dream,_ she told herself. _Just a dream._

_**Chapter Two**_

The sound of Calebs car horn pierced the air. Jess downed the glass of milk she was holding, jumped off her chair, slung her back pack over her shoulder and headed for the door.

'Caleb's here, time to go.'

Tally didn't move a muscle. Jess stopped in her tracks and looked at her little sister. 'Are you coming or not?'

'Not,' Tally replied taking a leisurely sip of her orange juice. 'I'm not coming to school this morning. I've got stuff to do.'

'Stuff?' Jess asked quizzically, raising an eyebrow.

'Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about.'

'Dad wil go crazy if he finds out you're skipping school.'

Tally shrugged her shoulders. 'I'm not taking the whold ay off, I'll be in sfter lunch.'

The car horn sounded again. 'Sounds like Calebs getting restless. You'd better get going Jess.'

Jess set Tally with a suspicious stare before opening the door. 'Fine, I'll see you later.'

Seconds later Jess was climbing into the car beside her boyfriend Caleb. Caleb leant across and gave her a kiss.

'Morning,' he said with a bright smile.

'Hey,' Jess replied wearily.

'What's up?' Caleb asked.

'Tally. She's not coming to school this morning. I just know she's up to something.'

'Isn't she always?' Caleb replied. Jess sighed and fastened her seatbelt as Caleb turned the keys in the igmition and the car tore away from the curb.

'So what happened last night?' he asked.

'I found her in the Warners house. Stealing some of Laila's personal possessions.'

'Uh oh.'

'I tried to get her to put the stuff back, but it was too late, the Warners came home an we had to get out of there.'

'It's just one thing after another with her.'

'Well we have to do something to protect Laila from whatever Tally's planning. I was thinking maybe we could make her an amulet to neutralise any spells that are cast.'

'And what, we just give it to her an expect her to wear it?'

'No, we'd have to be more sneaky than that. But don't worry, I have a plan.'

irst lesson of a plan.y than that. expect her to wear it?ise any spells that are cast. we had to get out of there.ed for the doTheir first lesson of the day was science. Caleb and Jess's best friend Dora were running late so Jess settled into her seat alone. Mr Logan entered the room, closing the door behind him.

'Good morning everyone. Lets get started.'

Time passed but there was no sign of Caleb or Dora. Suddenly the door opened and Jess looked up expecting to see them walk in. But there in the doorway was a tall guy with auburn hair, a guy she didn't recognise. Or did she? Jess studied him for a few seconds then concluded that she'd never seen him before in her life.

'May I help you?' Mr Logan asked.

'This is my first day here,' the guy began. 'I was told this is where I'm supposed to be.'

'Take a seat,' Mr Logan replied. The new guy scanned the room for an empty seat. His eyes fell upon the seat next to Jess. Then they fell upon Jess. Jess looked up from the doodles she had been scribbling all over her notepad. She noticed the new guy staring at her, and shifted in her seat uncomfortably. He began to walk across the room, with all eyes on him. He settled into the seat next to Jess's. Calebs seat.

'Hi,' he whispered to her. Jess looked up at him. There was something familiar about his eyes, something comforting about the warmth of his smile.

'Hi.' Jess replied.

'I'm Luke,' he said with s friendly smile. 'Luke Maguire.'

'I'm Jess Devereaux.' The door opened again and Caleb and Dora entered. Dora was limping.

'Sorry we're late.' Caleb said apologetically. 'Dora fell down the stairs and twisted her ankle. I had to take her to see the nurse.'

'How very good of you,' Mr Logan said flatly. 'Just sit down please.'

Dora hobbled over to the table in front of Jess's and took her seat. Caleb started to walk over to his seat but stopped in his tracks when he saw Luke sat there. Jess shrugged her shoulders as if to say, _there was nothing I could do._ Caleb walked to the back of the class and took a seat there.

Jess tried to concentrate on what Mr Logan was saying but she had the feeling she was being watched. She glanced over at Luke and caught him looking at her. Immediately his head snapped to the front of the class. How long had he been staring at her? Jess couldn't help but think he was a little bit creepy. Cute, but creepy.

When the bell finally rang Jess slammed her book shut and leapt out of her seat. She didn't want to have to make small talk with. Luke. Dora got to her feet and Jess bounded over to her.

'So, you fell down the stairs?'

'Don't ask.' Dora replied shaking her head. Jess felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder. She looked up expecting to see Caleb. But it was Luke, trying to squeeze past her.

'Sorry,' he said awkwardly. Jess gave him a strained smile and took a step back to let him pass.

'Who's that?' Dora asked watching him leave.

'His name's Luke. He's new here,' Jess said watching him leave too. There was something intriguing about him, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

_**Chapter Three**_

It had just turned ten thirty and Tally was walking through the centre of town. There was a spring in her step and a mischevious smile playing on her lips. Finally she stopped outside one of the stores, straightened her clothes up a little and walked in. Except for all the bars of scented soap, bottles of cleansing lotions and jars od bath salts that lined the shelves and filled the display cabinets the place was empty.

'Hey D!' Tally called out. 'It's me!'

There was no reply, only silence. Tally tapped her foot, sighed and walked over to the storeroom. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. A heady concoction of scents hit her like ten ton weight. There in the middle of the room was Diandra, her favourite aunt, adding copius amounts of oils, herbs and a number of things she couldn't identify into a big mixing bowl.

Diandra had her head phones on and was hopping from foot to foot, shaking her hips from side to side and nodding her head up and down, oblivious to Tally's presence. Tally laughed out loud, before sneaking up behind Diandra and yanking off her headphones. Diandra jumped about a mile in the air.

'Hey!' she cried as she spun around to face Tally. 'What do you think you're doing?!'

'Sorry D,' Tally laughed. 'I didn't mean to startle you.

'Tally! What are you doing here?'

Tally reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of paper. 'I need some supplies,' she said handing the list to Diandra.

Diandra owned and ran her own cosmetics store. She made all her own products, using only natural ingredients. But that was only half of it. Back in the store room away from prying eyes, she mixed potions, made magical charms and the like.

Diandra scanned the list. 'What do you need all this for?' she asked suspiciously.

'A project.' Tally replied innocently.

'What kind of project?'

'A project that requires all those ingredients.' Tally told her.

'Okay kiddo,' Diandra said folding her arms across her chest, 'I'm not handing over any of this stuff until you tell me exactly what you're going to be using it for.'

Tally sighed. 'You want the truth?'

'Of course I want the truth,' Diandra replied narrowing her eyes.

'Okay,' Tally said with false resignation. 'One of my friends, Jared, you remember him don't you? Well he accused me of being a really bad spell caster. He bet me that I couldn't come up with a spell that would make him bend to my will for a period of twenty four hours. And I wan to prove him wrong.'

Diandra let out a little grunt. 'There is no way I'm going to let you do that. No way in the world.'

'Oh, but D!' Tally cried. 'It's an experiment! A legitimate experiment! And I have his permission!'

Diandra shook her head. 'Why can't you be more like Jess? When she comes to me she asks for stuff that will help people overcome heartbreaks and hardships. Things that will create a little bit of peace and harmony. But you? Tally, the only things you want to create are havoc and mayhem.'

'Don't tell me you didn't try anything like this when you were growing up,' Tally sulked. 'Dad's told me enough stories about you for me to know that you weren't exactly a stranger to havoc and mayhem yourself.'

'And I learned from my mistakes,' Diandra said firmly. 'I don't want you to mess up the way I did Tal.'

Before Tally had the chance to reply the bell above the store door sounded. Diandra put the list down on the table and took off her apron.

'You wait here while I serve this customer,' she said. 'And don't even think about touching anything.'

Diandra left the room and a slow smile crept across Tally's face. She snatched up the list then immediately began routing through the cupboards in search of her coveted ingredients. In less than a minute she had found everything she needed and had stashed it all away safely in her bag.

Diandra came back into the room. 'Where were we?' she asked as she put her apron back on.

'You were about to tell me you're more than happy to help and that I can take whatever I want.'

'Forget it,' Diandra said. 'Come back when you're looking for something a little less dangerous.' For now, I think you should be getting back to school.'

'Thanks for nothing D!' Tally said petulantly as she stormed out of the storeroom. Once she was out of sight a devilish grin lit up her face as she patted her bag with satisfaction.

_**Chapter Four**_

The school day was drawing to a close and Jess couldn't wait to get home. She had to start working on the protection amulet for Laila. There was no doubt in Jess's mind that the 'stuff' Tally had to do that morning was connected to the spell she was going to cast on the unsuspecting Laila.

Jess rushed down the steps, rummaging through her back pack as she went, trying to find the incantation Dora had given her at lunch. She hoped she hadn't lost it. It played a crucial part in the amulets creation. Just as she neared the bottom of the steps she slammed straight into a group of students who had congregated there.

'Hey, watch where you're going, freak!' A voice yelled angrily. Jess looked up. The voice belonged to Tyler Monroe. She froze under the angry stares Tyler and his friends were giving her.

'Whoa, no harm done,' said a familiar voice. Jess looked to the right. There stood next to Tyler was Luke.

'Sorry,' Jess mumbled as she put her head down and squeezed through the group.

At the bottom of the steps Caleb was waiting for her. He had fixed Tyler with an icy glare. Tyler was glaring right back. Just as Jess had almost gotten through the group someone stuck their foot out and tripped Jess. She stumbled forward. Caleb stepped towards Jess and caught her. A cruel giggle filled the air. Jess turned to face the person who had tripped her. It was Laila.

'Can you say co-ordination and balance, freak?' Jess and Caleb walked away ignoring them. As they left Jess heard Luke speak up.

'That was kind of harsh wasn't it? She didn't mean to walk into us.'

'Jess Devereaux and her friends are the closest thing this town has to circus freaks,' Tyler said loudly. 'You won't go siding with them if you know what's good for you.'

When Jess got home she locked herself away in her bedroom. She pulled a smallchest out from under her bed and opened it up. Inside I were pouches containing crystals and herbs, notebooks filled with spells and incantations, candles, incense and oils.

Jess picked up one of the pouches, yanked it open and poured the contents onto the floor. A dazzling array of colourful stones spilled out. Jess picked up two pieces of amethyst. One was large and kind of rough. The other one was smaller and polished. Jess studied them both for a few seconds. The larger stone would be more powerful but Jess guesses that Laila wouldn't want something that big hanging around her neck. It would draw too much attention, too many questions.

She put the large crystal down and wrapped her hand around the smaller one. Suddenly the door knob rattled. Some one was trying to get in.

'Jess? Are you in there?' she heard Tall call from the other side of the door.

'Hang on,' Jess yelled back. Jess put the stone down, got to her feet and walked over to the door. As she opened it she was greeted by Tally who had her hands on her hips and one eyebrow arched.

'Why did you lock your door?' Tally asked.

'None of your business,' Jess replied sweetly.

'You don't have Caleb in there do you?'

'No,' Jess replied. 'Of course not.'

'So what are you doing?' Tally asked trying to peer over Jess's shoulder. Jess took a step to the side, blocking Tally's view.

'Like I said, that's none of your business.'

'I'm intrigued,' teased Tally. 'Saint Jess, keeping secrets, who would've thought it?'

'What do you want?' Jess asked her little sister impatiently.

'I was just wondering if you have any mandrake root? I've ran out.'

'What do you need mandrake root for?'

'Duh! A spell of course!'

'The spell you're using on Laila?' Jess quizzed.

Tally scowled. 'Forget it. I should have known better than to ask you for help.' Tally turned on her heel and retreated to her own room.

'I'm all for helping,' Jess called after her. 'But only when it's for a good cause!' Jess closed her door, locking it again and went back to her spot on the floor. She opened up her back pack and pulled out a bottle of mineral water the piece of paper which had the incantation written on it.

Reaching into the chest she picked up a small bowl made out of clear quartz. She unscrewed the bottle top and poured some water into the bowl. She scooped up the amethyst, the paper with the incantation on, a pouch of herbs, some oil, four candles, some incense and a box of matches.

Jess carried everything over to her window seat and made herself comfortable. She placed the quartz bowl by the window and arranged the candles around it. She lit the incense and set it in a nearby holder. Then she began to light the candles starting with the one at the top.'

'I call upon the guardians of the north. I call upon the guardians of the east. I call upon the guardians of the south. I call upon the guardians of the west.'

Picking up the small amethyst she passed it through the smoke floating off the burning incense. 'With the power of air I bless you.'

Jess then held the stone over each of the candle flames for a few seconds. 'With the power of fire I charge you.'

She then placed the stone into the water. 'With the power of water I purify you.'

Jess then took some Dill out of the herb pouch and sprinkled it over the water. 'With the power of earth I strengthen and nurture you.'

She picked up the incantation, placed a hand over the bowl and began to recite, 'By the wonder of earth, sun, wind and sea, channel your power, send it through me. Protect and deflect, and bind in this stone, the strength of the maiden, the mother, the crone.'

Jess picked up a small bottle of oil and let a few drops fall into the water. 'Be a haven of safety, a bringer of peace, intercept harmful magic, force it to cease.'

Jess put the incantation aside. There, all done. She'd leave the amethyst where it was for a while just to make certain it was fully charged. If only Laila knew all the trouble Jess was going to to protect her. Maybe if she did know she wouldn't be such a bitch all the time. But then again, Laila wasn't exactly the grateful type.

Jess quickly tidied up her room, then flopped down on her bed with a sigh. Much to her discomfort her mind began to wander to Luke. Jess got the feeling that maybe he liked her. She would have been flattered if she wasn't so mortified. It wasn't that she had anything against humans. Sure, some of them were narrow minded and ignorant, but most of them were okay.

But the Devereaux family were full blooded witches, a fact that Jess and Tally were very proud of. They didn't count very many humans as friends. Acquaintances maybe, but not friends. Jess felt very lucky that she had found Caleb, who although not from a line of full blooded witches like her, was very proud of his heritage. Centuries back humans had married into his family, and there had been a couple of weddings to shapeshifters too, but primarily Caleb was all witch.

_Maybe if Luke was a witch...._ Jess slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead stopping the thought before it had a chance to fully form.

_How could you even think that,_ she asked herself angrily. _You love Caleb!_ Tally's face popped into her mind. She could just imagine what her little sister would say if she knew what Jess was thinking.

_Okay, so you love Caleb,_ she'd say. _That doesn't stop you from appreciating a cute guy, human or otherwise. A little daydreaming never hurt anyone._

Jess relaxed a little. There was no reason to get angry at herself. But at the back of her mind something was niggling away. Luke had a strange effect on her. He made her feel slightly disconcerted and more than a little intrigued. And what had he done to evoke these feelings? Say, 'Hi my name's Luke Maguire' and look in her direction for a few seconds? Hardly suspicious behaviour worthy of her attention. But there was something about him...

Jess groaned inwardly. Maybe she was just developing a little crush on the new guy. That didn't mean she didn't love Caleb. And she was pretty sure that she wouldn't be the only girl with a boyfriend at Stanford DeWitt High School that got a crush on the handsom Luke Maguire. Picking up a magazine Jess rolled onto her stomach and dismissed Luke from her mind before getting down to the important business of scanning the fashion pages.

_**Chapter Five**_

The next morning Jess leapt out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed. For the first time in a while she'd had a good nights sleep. No dreams of vampires ripping out her colonial husbands throat, no night sweats, no tears. She jumped into the shower so full of good cheer that she began singing loud enough for her father to hear downstairs in the kitchen.

'What's buzzing your batteries?' Tally asked sticking her head around the shower curtain.

'I'm just in a good mood,' Jess replied flicking soapy lather at her sister. 'Is that a crime?'

'No, but that singing voice of yours sure is!'

Back in her room Jess slipped the amethyst, which now hung from a delicate silver chain, into a pocket in her back pack, along with a note she had written the night before. She bounded down the stairs and out of the house, bellowing a melodious goodbye to her father as she went. Tally followed closely behind. Once in the car Jess leapt over to Caleb and gave him a long, lingering kiss.

'Oh please,' Tally said dryly from the back seat. 'I've just eaten.' Jess slowly pulled away leaving a dopey grin on Calebs face.

'What was that for?' he asked.

'Just my way of saying good morning.' Jess replied. _And of proving to myself that all the stuff I was thinking last night meant nothing,_ she added silently.

When they arrived at school Jess and Caleb walked up the steps hand in hand. Tally had abandoned them and gone in search of her friends as soon as they'd arrived.

'So did you make the amulet?' Caleb asked quietly.

'Uh huh,' Jess replied tapping the pocket on her back pack with her free hand.

'How are you going to make sure she wears it?'

'Well,' Jess began. ' I've written her a note pretending to be a secret admirer. The 'necklace' is meant to be a present. I charged the stone in a powerful infusion that has given it irresistible properties. She won't be able to overcome the urge to wear it. I'm going to excuse myself during Mr Millers' class. I'll tape it to her locker then.'

'Are you sure Laila Warners worth all this?' Caleb asked.

Jess shrugged. 'Probably not, but someone's got to save her from Tally and her evil schemes.' Caleb laughed and the two of them walked through the doors. On the other side of the lawn a group of students laughed and joked. Luke was among them but he wasn't joining in. Instead he was gazing at the retreating figures of Jess and Caleb.

'So that Jess girl,' he began. 'She has a boyfriend?' Tyler looked at him as though he'd just asked him for directions to the North Pole.

'Yeah, so?' Tyler replied, his voice tinged with disgust.

'So I was just wondering,' Luke said casually.

'You're not interested in her are you?' Tyler asked. 'Because like I said yesterday, the girl's a freak and so is that boyfriend of hers. So unless you want to get stuck in the same category you won't go any where near that weird chick, or her friends.'

Luke nodded thoughtfully.

'It's just a friendly word of advice man,' Tyler told him. 'Don't forget it.'

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, much to Tally's annoyance. She had been fully expecting Laila to have a magically induced breakdown, but the pretty blonde girl carried on as normal, seemingly unaffected. It was Friday lunch time when Tally marched over to Jess's table in the cafeteria, rage blazing in her eyes.

'You bitch!' she spat venomously.

'Hello to you to,' Jess said taking a bite of her apple.

'I know what you did!' Tally yelled as she gripped the edge of the table and leant forward. 'That's an amethyst she's got around her neck! I saw it! Since when did Laila start following new age trends?!'

'Keep your voice down,' Caleb said.

'You keep the hell out of this Caleb!' Tally spat. 'This has got nothing to do with you! This is between me and Jess!'

People were starting to stare. 'Can we talk about this later? At home?' Jess asked.

'The other day, when you had your door locked! That's what you were doing isn't it?! You were making that! For HER!'

'Calm down, Tally' Jess told her.

'You think you're so great don't you? Always one step ahead of me! Trying to prove that you're better!'

Jess shook her head. 'That's not it! That's not it at all!'

'Well I'm going to come up with something! Something that'll blow you away! Something that'll make you and her wish you'd never messed with me!' And with that she stormed out of the cafeteria.

'I think she might be mad,' Dora said. 'But hey, that's just a guess.'

'What do you think she's going to do?' Jess asked.

'Attract way too much unwanted attention to us if she carries on acting like that. I think the whole school heard her.'

Tally didn't come home that evening. Jess paced the kitchen floor. 'Where do you think she is?' she asked nervously.

'Blowing off steam somewhere,' Caleb replied. 'Don't worry about it.'

'But I am worried!' Jess exclaimed, stamping her foot like a petulant child. 'She was so mad. I think we should go find her.'

Caleb walked over to Jess, wrapped her up in a gentle hug and placed a kiss on the top of her head. 'If that's what you want.' Ten minutes later they were stood on the doorstep of Petra Lightheart, Tally's best friend. They knocked on the door. Almost instantly it opened and they were greeted by Penny, Petra's thirteen year old sister.

'Hey Penny,' Jess said with a smile. 'Is Tally here?'

'No,' Penny replied.

'Is Petra here?'

'No,' Penny shook her head again. 'They went out.'

'Well where did they go?'

'I'm not supposed to say,' Penny said with a mischievous smile. 'I'm not even supposed to know, but I overheard them talking.'

'If you tell us where they are,' Jess began, 'Caleb will give you a kiss.'

'On the lips?' Penny asked excitedly.

'On the cheek,' Jess told her.

'Okay,' Penny replied, gazing up at Caleb adoringly. 'I heard them say they were going to a place called The Onyx.'

A frown fell over Calebs face, and Jess knew the expression on hers was the same. The Onyx was a club for members of the Night World. It was always packed full of low lives. Jess and Dora had been there once when they were fifteen and the experience was not a pleasant one. Jess and Caleb turned to leave.

'Hey!' Penny yelled indignantly.' What about my kiss?'

Quickly, Caleb spun back around and gave Penny a quick peck on the cheek before racing back to the car. It took them twenty minutes to drive to The Onyx which was located on the outskirts of town. The outside didn't even look like a club. It was just an abandoned warehouse with a black flower painted on the door.

Jess knocked on it tentatively. It opened slowly. A tall gangly guy stood facing them, his hazel eyes narrowed as he scrutinized them. Jess looked him up and down. Werewolf, she concluded.

'Unity,' Jess said confidently, using the the traditional greeting of the withces and identifying herself as a nightworlder. The werewolf stepped aside and let them pass. They walked through a narrow hallway to a door at the end. Behind the door there was a steep flight of stairs leading down. Jess and Caleb descended the steps, the sound of blaring music growing louder the closer they got.

Once at the bottom they opened the door and were greeted by the sound of loud, rhythmic dance music that shook the foundations. The bar was packed. Jess strained her neck to see if she could spot Tally. Caleb put his mouth to her ear.

'Let's mingle,' he said. Jess shook her head. 'Do you want to find Tally or not?' he asked.

Jess sighed. 'Just make sure we don't lose each other okay?'

Caleb nodded. 'Okay.'

The two witches ventured further into the club. Jess scanned the crowds. In the centre of the dance floor were a group of twenty something women. Jess recognized them as witches immediately. She had seen some of them at solstice and samhein celebrations.

In one corner there was a pack of shapeshifters sat around a small table playing cards. In another corner was a couple of vampires surrounded by a group of high school girls who were totally wasted on beer and dope. Jess shook her head in disgust.

She recognized one of the vampires as Malachi Thorpe, he was a couple of years older than them and she and Caleb knew him from when he went to school with them. By chance, Malachi looked in their direction. As soon as he saw them his eyes lit up in recognition. With a drunken smile he unceremoniously pushed the girl he had his arm around to the side and began to walk over to Jess and Caleb.

'Well, well, well,' he slurred. 'If it isn't little Jess Devereaux! How the hell are you?' He stepped closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist.'

'Back off Malachi,' Caleb warned him, pushing him away.

'Whoa! Don't go starting something you can't finish,' Malachi replied baring his teeth.

Caleb squared up to him. 'I'm not afraid of you.'

Jess put a hand on Calebs arm. 'Come on, we didn't come here to fight.' Caleb stepped back, then the two of them began to walk away.

'Screw you!' Malachi called after them before returning to his worse for wear harem. Jess and Caleb were weaving through the crowds, but it was no use. Tally was no where to be seen. Jess sighed, her shoulders slumping. Briefly, she closed her eyes. She wondered if her Dad had spent his Friday nights chasing after Diandra when he was her age.

She opened her eyes and took a second to let them refocus on the object straight ahead of her. Then she froze, and her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes weren't refocusing on an object. They were refocusing on a person. And that person was Luke.

_**Chapter Six**_

_Okay_, Jess thought. _I may have seen him, but he hasn't seen us._ As soon as the thought had formed, to Jess's horror Luke looked straight at her. His eyes narrowed fro a second as if he was trying to work out if it was really her. Then a broad smile lit up his face and he started to walk over to her. _Damn,_ Jess thought to herself. _Damn! Damn! Damn! _

'Hey Jess,' Luke said warmly.

'Luke,' Jess replied uncharacteristically flustered. 'Hi.'

'Who's this?' Caleb asked, instantly going into protective mode and obviously not recognising him.

'This is Luke,' Jess told him with a look that warned him to keep his guard up. 'He's new at school.'

'Nice to meet you,' Luke said extending his hand to Caleb.

'Yeah,' Caleb replied as he shook jis hand. _This is all too awkward, _Jess thought. She had to find out what the deal was.

'So, Luke, ' she began. 'Are you....' _A member of the Night World,_ she asked silently. '....here with friends?'

Luke shook his head. 'Nope, it's just me.'

'Do you know anyone here?' Caleb asked.

'No,' he replied. 'I found this place kind of by accident.' He was lying, Jess knew it.

'It's kind of a hard place to just stumble across,' Jess challenged. 'I mean it's not exactly signposted.'

'Actually,' he replied looking a little embarrassed, 'I came here with a girl. I met her in a bar earlier and she asked me if I wanted to come to this cool place she knew. I don't usually pick up girls in bars, but hey, I'm new in town. You gotta make friends anyway you can.' Jess had to hand it to him. He seemed genuine.

'So,' he conitinude. 'Is this where you guys usually hang out?'

'No,' they answered in unison.

'We're just looking for my little sister. Someone told us she might be here.'

'So where's this girl you came with?' Caleb asked.

'I don't know,' Luke replied. 'She ditched me when we got here. I guess she got a better offer.'

Jess looked around nervously. She felt very uncomfortable. What was going on? Did Luke know about the night world? Did he belong to it? Did he realise Jess and Caleb were witches? Suddenly her flow of thoughts were interrupted as she noticed a familiar figure in the corner. It was Tally! Making out with what looked like a vampire.

'Excuse me,' Jess said suddenly before dashing across the dancefloor and yanking Tally out of the bloodsuckers clutches. 'Tally Elizabeth Devereaux! What the hell do ypu think you're doing!?'

Fury flashed in Tally's eyes. 'Me!?! What the hell do you think _you're_ doing?!'

'Taking you home, that's what!'

'Get your hands off me!' Tally yelled.

'Do you want me to call Dad?' Jess threatened. 'You know how mad he'll be if he finds out you came here! And you know he'll come and drag you out of this place, kicking and screaming, without a seconds hesitation!'

Tally stared at her sister for a moment before stepping close to her and whispering with a steely conviction,' I hate you.'

Tally grabbed her coat of a nearby bar stool and fled to the exit, Petra following closely behind. Jess returned to Caleb and Luke.

'Time to go,' she said wearily, wrapping an arm around Caleb.

'I think I might leave too,' Luke said. 'I'll probably stick to high school hang outs from now on.'

'Good idea,' Caleb said.

The dream returned that night. Back in the house, with the baby, Jess stood by the window. Then she paced the floor just like she did every night. The sound of the horse hooves came and went and Jess found herself kneeling by her husbands body sobbing. It was at this point the dream usually stopped, but not this time. Instead of waking up in terror, Jess stayed by her husbands body, her skirt soaking up his blood.

Jess had to kiss him. She had to see his face one last time. Summoning all her strength she turned him over. His face was pale. His face was covered in dirt. His face...his face....His face was identical to Luke's.

'Freaky or what?' It was Monday morning and Jess and Dora were sat in the library.

'So Luke Maguire made a guest appearance in one of your dreams. I'm sure plenty of girls dream about him,' Dora said.

'But this isn't just any dream. It's a nightmare, a recurring nightmare. And it happens to be about a man who was killed by vampires.'

'It's hardly surprising,' Dora replied. 'I mean you saw him at The Onyx that night. It's probably just your subconscious mind trying to find a connection between him and the night world.'

'I guess so,' Jess sighed. 'But don't you think it's weird, him being there?

'Jess, half the kids in this school have been to The Onyx at one point or another. The difference is they don't remember because they usually end up with their blood sucked and their memory wiped, a fate you saved him from.'

The bell rang. 'Come on, lets get to class,' Dora said getting out of her chair. Their next lesson was English. A lesson Luke was in too. Jess did everything she could to avoid making contact with him. She was doing a pretty good job of it, there was only two minutes to go and they hadn't looked at each other or spoken once.

Mr Miller got out of his seat and picked up a piece of paper. 'Okay,' he began. 'As you are all aware I'm pairing you up for the essay I have just set. It's due on Friday so you guys have to get busy. The pairs are as follows.

Mr Miller rattled off the list of names. He's gone through almost every name in the class. Only two were left. 'And the final pair are Jess Devereaux and Luke Maguire. Good luck to you all.' The bell rang and chairs scraped across the floor as everyone got to their feet. Jess sighed inwardly. _Oh Goddess, _she thought to herself, _Why me? Why me?!_

Luke came over. 'Hey.'

'Hi,' Jess said forcing a smile.

'So,' he began. 'I guess we should get together and start work on this project.'

'Well I'm on my way to the library now if you want to join me,' Jess told him.

'I can't, I've got some stuff I need to do. But I can meet you there, in say, half an hour?'

'I might not be there then,' Jess replied. 'I have stuff to do too. I don't know where I'll be.'

'Don't worry,' Luke said with a smile, before almost cautiously adding, 'Where ever you go, I'll find you.'

Jess froze. She was no longer in Mr Millers classroom. Instead she was back in the colonial house from her dreams, holding her baby, pacing the floor, replaying her husbands final words, _Don't worry, where ever you go, I'll find you._

Suddenly she was back in the classroom. 'We'll be together again,' she whispered to herself, without even realising she'd said it.

'Huh?' Luke said. She looked up at him. He was frowning, his eyes narrowed as he gazed down at her. Jess leapt to her feet.

'I've got to go,' she said hurrying to the door.

'But what about the essay?' Luke called after her.

'We'll talk about it another time,' Jess called over her shoulder. And with that she was gone.

_**Chapter Seven**_

Jess and Dora were sat together in the corner of the cafeteria.

'Jess, you're over reacting.'

'No, I'm not,' Jess replied. 'Something weird is going on here. First he shows up at The Onyx, then he turns up in the dream I've been having for months now, and then? Then he actually quotes the guy from my dream!'

'So what did he say exactly?' Dora inquired.

'He said, 'Don't worry, where ever you go, I'll find you.' And those are the exact words the guy in my dream uses!'

'It's a coincidence,' Dora told her, her patience tiring. Just then Caleb arrived. He sat down next to Jess, placing his arms around her shoulders.

'Hey guys.' Neither of the two girls replied. 'What's going on? Jess? You look like you've seen a ghost.'

Jess sighed. Should she tell Caleb what was going on? She decided not to, it would only worry him. 'It's nothing,' Jess said leaning her head against his shoulder. 'I'm just having a lousy day.'

'Well maybe I can make it better,' Caleb said leaning in for a soft, tender kiss. 'Better?'

'Much,' Jess replied wrapping her arm around his waist.

'Hey, mind if I sit down?'

The three witches looked up. Luke was stood at the end of their table holding his lunch tray. No one spoke for a few seconds. Finally, Caleb broke the silence, 'Sure, go for it man.'

Luke smiled and sat down next to Dora. 'So Jess,' he began. 'Are you okay? You took off in kind of a hurry before.'

Jess wasn't in the mood for small talk. 'Luke, why are you sitting with us?' She asked bluntly. Caleb almost choked on his pizza. Hurt flashed across Luke's face but he masked it quickly.

'If it's a problem, I can leave.'

'It's just that we're not exactly popular,' Jess continued. 'In fact most people at this school hate our guts. We're, how did Tyler put it? Circus freaks. Why do you want to hang out with a group of outcasts?

Luke shrugged his shoulders. 'You guys seem cool, that's all.' Jess was getting very frustrated was Luke a Nightworlder or not? Did he know the truth about them? It was too hard to tell.

'Ignore Jess,' Caleb said. 'She's not having the greatest day.' Luke gazed down at the table as he opened his carton of milk and nodded. Jess's words had obviously hurt him. Suddenly Dora lunged her hand towards him.

'We haven't been properly introduced yet,' she said brightly. 'I'm Dora.' Luke took her hand and shook it half heartedly. 'It's nice to meet you,' she concluded taking her hand away and feeling somewhat snubbed.

Later as she and Jess stood by their lockers Dora began to shake her head. 'That guy definitely has a thing for you.'

'What?' Jess asked.

'Hello?! Luke! He's totally hung up on you!'

'He is not,' Jess replied, feeling her face flush.

'He so undoubtedly is!' Dora insisted. 'He couldn't keep his eyes off you at lunch.'

'Well that's too bad,' Jess said. 'Because I'm with Caleb.'

'Too bad for who?' Dora asked. 'You or Luke?'

'What are you insinuating?' Jess said, firing a question straight back at her.

'Oh come on Jess,' Dora laughed. 'I know you. You like him too, I can tell. Not that I'm saying you're going to pursue it or anything.'

'Because there's nothing to pursue,' Jess said sternly before slamming her locker door shut and storming off.

'Jess! Don't be mad!' Dora called after her. 'I'm just stating the obvious!'

Tally and Petra were sharing a cigarette under the bleachers. Tally blew smoke up towards the sky. 'Life sucks.'

'Tell me about it,' Petra agreed. 'With our power we should be ruling this school. Instead we have to put up with everyone looking down on us.'

'They all think we're nothing more than a bunch of new age wannabes,' Tally sneered. 'If they knew the truth, boy would they be shocked.'

'There has to be something we can do,' Petra mused.

'Something that Jess can't step in and ruin,' Tally added taking another long drag of the cigarette.'

'You know, I was talking to this girl at The Onyx. She told me about this vengeance spell she once cast – the three plagues.'

'Sounds kind of dangerous to me,' Tally told her. 'The three plagues versus the law of the three fold return? I don't want to end up with an ass covered in boils.'

'You haven't heard the best bit. I know I said she cast it, but it wasn't exactly her. She worked out a way for the people she wanted vengeance against to cast it themselves.'

'Tell me more,' Tally grinned.

'Damn it!' cursed Jess.

'What?' Caleb asked.

'I left my science book behind, I have to go get it.'

'Is it really that important?' Caleb asked. 'I really have to get out of here. I promised my parents I'd take them to the airport. They're visiting the Harmans in Las Vegas, remember?'

'You go on,' Jess told him as she jumped out of the car. 'I'll walk home.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah, go on.'

Caleb leant over and gave her a kiss goodbye, shut the door, then drove off. Jess raced back into school. Once at her locker she stopped to catch her breath. A familiar feeling swept over her. She was being watched. Jess looked up. Sure enough, halfway down the hallway was Luke.

'Okay! I've had it!' Jess yelled, finally losing it. Luke walked towards her. Apart from them the hallway was empty. _I can't take this anymore, _Jess thought. _I need to find out what's going on._

Luke stopped beside her. 'Jess, I'm sorry if I've upset you in anyway.'

Jess put a hand to her head and rubbed her temples. 'You've not upset me,' she said wearily. 'I just can't help wondering....' She trailed off. What exactly was she going to say?

'You can't help wondering...?' Luke prompted her.

'I can't help wondering if you're....' Jess stopped, desperately searching for a plausible lie.

'A witch?' Luke said finally. His eyes were sincere, and a reassuring smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. So he did know. Jess was speechless.

'Well I'm not,' he told her. In the absence of basic communication skills Jess tried to fake a confused smile.

'I'm a vampire.'

The fake smile disappeared from Jess's face. 'So that night at The Onyx?' Jess said suddenly finding her voice, 'The story about that girl taking you there? It was a lie?'

Luke nodded. ''Fraid so.' Jess looked at him thoughtfully. At least now she knew.

'What about you?' Luke asked.

Jess reached inside her shirt and pulled out a pendant. It was a small black dahlia.

'So I was right,' he said. 'You are a witch.'

'Yeah,' Jess replied.

'And Dora and Caleb?'

'Uh huh. And you should know, we have a rule. We don't hang out with vampires.'

'That's discrimination,' Luke said.

'It's called playing it safe,' Jess replied. 'I've got to go.' Jess shut her locker and walked away.

'Jess!' Luke called after her.

Jess stood still, and turned to face him. 'It's nothing personal, okay? See you around.'

Luke watched her leave. When he had first arrived in this town, he hadn't expected any of this. He hadn't expected to fall so quickly, to fall so hard, for a stranger. Was there more to this? Could his suspicions really be true? One way or another, he had to find out.


	2. Chapter 8

'A vampire?' Caleb didn't sound surprised. He was the kind of guy who took everything in his stride. He and Jess were sat on the couch at his house watching TV. Jess snuggled up to him.

'Yeah,' she said matter of factly. 'At least it's all out in the open now. We know what he is and he knows what we are.'

'Is he lamia?' Caleb asked.

'I guess so,' Jess replied. 'If he was a made vampire he'd probably be too old to be in school.'

Caleb rested his head on top of Jess's and took hold of her hand. Jess kissed his neck and closed her eyes. The time she got to spend with Caleb really meant a lot to Jess. Sometimes she couldn't believe how incredibly lucky she was to have gotten together with him.

Dora's words from earlier that day suddenly entered her mind. _Luke! He's totally hung up on you! You like him too, I can tell._

_Dora doesn't know what she's talking about, _Jess though angrily. Yes, she'd admit it, Luke was cute, and yes she had contemplated the idea that maybe, just maybe, she may have been developing the tiniest of crushes on him. But so what? That didn't mean anything.

But deep down Jess felt guilty. As if somehow her dismissing Luke the way she had was in someway cruel. He'd only ever been nice to her and she was always short and abrupt in return. _You know why that is,_ whispered a voice in her head. _You don't want to face the truth. You don't want to contemplate the words 'what if**…..**'_

Jess tried to ignore the voice, but she couldn't. She thought back to the first time she'd seen him. As he'd stood in the doorway to Mr Logan's science class a feeling had been ignited in Jess. It wasn't like any of the feelings she had for Caleb, and she couldn't put a name to it. But it was there, and it got a little stronger every time she saw him.

'Are you okay?' Caleb asked interrupting her thoughts.

'Fine,' Jess replied opening her eyes.

'You sure?' he asked. 'You've gotten kind of tense.'

Jess bit her lip nervously. She sure hoped he didn't know what she'd been thinking. 'It's just been a long day,' she said looking up at him.

Suddenly the sound of shattering glass filled the room, accompanied by a gust of cold air. Caleb and Jess leapt to their feet. The window had been smashed and a large brick lay on the floor a few feet away from the couch. Caleb ran over to the window just in time to see Tyler and his friends driving away. Caleb turned to face Jess.

'Tyler,' he said, his face hard as stone.

'Why would he do that?' Jess asked shaking.

'Because he's an idiot. And because he hates us.'

Jess knew that Tyler hated them, but he'd never done anything like this before. It was kind of unnerving.

'You know,' Caleb began, 'Sometimes I think Tally has the right idea.'

'In what way?' Jess asked

'They shouldn't be able to treat us the way they do,' he told her. 'Would it really be so bad if we did something to put them in their place?'

'You can't mean that,' Jess said uncertainly.

'Well I do,' Caleb replied firmly. 'The way he spoke to you the other day made me so mad. I should have laid him out flat. But why resort to violence when we have magic?'

Jess couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'We're above that Caleb,' she said in exasperation. 'We always agreed that we'd never retaliate. We're strong enough to take whatever they throw at us.'

'And we're strong enough to teach them a lesson they won't ever forget.' Caleb replied.

Jess shook her head in disbelief. 'You need to listen to yourself.'

'Jess!' Caleb yelled, 'They just threw a brick through my window! How do you expect me to react?!'

Hot tears sprung to her eyes. Caleb never shouted at her. 'Don't yell at me,' she whispered.

Caleb sighed before walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her. 'I'm sorry. Please don't cry. Please. I didn't mean to yell at you. It's not you I'm mad at, it's them.'

'This is what they want,' Jess sniffed, resting her head against his chest. 'They want to get to us. We shouldn't let them.'

'I know,' Caleb said gently. 'But it's kind of difficult.'

'Let's get this mess cleared up,' Jess replied. Caleb nodded. The two of them never fought, and although most people wouldn't have classed the exchange they'd just had as a fight it was enough to shake Jess. Was that how Caleb really felt? Did he believe magical revenge was justified? Jess hoped not.

It was two am. Petra was giggling uncontrollably.

'Shut up!' Tally hissed, elbowing her friend in the ribs.

'Oww!' Petra yelped. 'What was that for?'

The girls were creeping slowly through Laila Warner's backyard. Like a pair of burglars they were dressed from head to toe in black, but they weren't there to steal. Well not exactly, there was one item they were going to be taking, but in their opinions that bitch Laila didn't deserve it anyway.

'I can't believe she sleeps with her window open,' Petra whispered.

'Could she make it any easier for us?' Tally replied with a devilish grin. 'Let's do it!'

The two girls hurried towards the house. Up against the wall and directly below Laila's window was a trellis.

'Do you think it'll hold our weight?' Petra asked as they both began to climb up.

'Yeah,' Tally replied. 'But maybe we should play it safe and go up one at a time.'

A few minutes later Tally and Petra were inside Laila's room. Over in the bed Laila's figure lay beneath the pink sheets, rising and falling gently as she slept peacefully, unaware of the two intruders. The girls snuck up to the bed, walking on their tip toes.

Petra burst out in another fit of giggles. Tally glared at her menacingly.

'Shut the hell up!' she whispered viciously.

'I can't help it,' Petra said in between giggles. 'I laugh when I'm nervous.'

'Let's just get on with it,' Tally said turning her back on her friend. Carefully she pulled back the covers ever so slightly. There it was, hanging around her neck, just as they had expected. That damn amulet Jess had made. It was so powerful Laila didn't even want to take it off to go to sleep.

Tally reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pair of scissors before quickly snipping at the chain. Gently, she slid the amethyst off the chain and handed it to Petra.

'Now she's no longer protected,' Tally said with a sly grin. 'Let the fun begin.'

Luke couldn't sleep. Staring up at the ceiling he sighed deeply. He was so tired. Not just physically, but emotionally. And it wasn't just the events of the previous day that had made him weary, it was the events of all those years that had gone before. He was tired of searching, tired of hoping, tired of not being able to forget.

It wasn't so long ago that he'd made his mind up. He wouldn't torture himself anymore, she was gone, she had been gone for over three hundred years. It was high time he faced the truth, maybe she wasn't coming back. Maybe he was just destined not to find her. Or maybe he had….

Luke sighed again. Everything about her, the way she looked, the way she spoke – it was all so familiar. But he couldn't be sure. He had been so desperate to find her that maybe this was just wishful thinking….

He threw back the covers, swung his legs to the floor and sat up. The moment he had seen her it was like the clock had spun back to a time when everything had been so much simpler. She had been sat in the middle of the room, her head bowed down. He hadn't even been able to see her face properly, but that didn't matter. Then she looked up. Her eyes, the shape of her face. He hadn't seen them in centuries.

Luke closed his eyes and clenched his fists, trying to push away the pain of remembering. He had never forgiven himself for being so foolish all those years ago. He had only wanted to do what was best for his family. They didn't have much, he had wanted to change that.

What was he going to do now? He had always assumed that when they finally met in this life time that he would know, and she would know. He hadn't thought about what would happen if she was already in love with someone. He always knew the vampire thing was going to be an issue, but when he had found out she was now a witch, a fellow member of the night world, _maybe_, he thought, _maybe she'll accept me for who I am._

But she hadn't. _We have a rule. We don't hang out with vampires. _Those had been her words. Maybe this is what he needed. Finally he had the chance to get some closure. He could move on with his life, give up fighting for something that was lost so long ago. Luke got up and walked over to the window. His face, reflected in the glass, was filled with sadness.

How could he give up on her? This was the girl he loved. The girl he'd always loved. In all the years since he'd lost her no one had ever come close to comparing to her. No one had ever made his heart soar the way she did. Until now. Until he had come to this stupid town. Until he met Jess.

Anger welled up inside of Luke. He punched the wall angrily. He was cursed, he always would be. There was no point in trying to regain the things he had possessed when he was human. _But you have to try,_ he thought to himself sadly. _You've been without her for so long. Don't give up on what may be your only chance for happiness._

He suddenly felt dizzy. Quickly he pulled on his jeans and a shirt before grabbing his car keys and heading for the door. He had to feed.


	3. Chapter 9

Laila Warner screamed. 'OH MY GOD!!! WHAT IS THAT!?!'

She was stood in front of the mirror in the girls' bathroom, staring at her reflection in absolute horror. There on her forehead was a huge red, angry looking blister.

'You mean that thing on your head?' her friend Charlene asked, trying not to smirk as she applied a coat of lip gloss.

'Yes! Why didn't you tell me about it?'

Charlene shrugged her shoulders, 'I thought you knew it was there.'

'Are you crazy!?' Laila screeched. 'Do you really think I would be walking around, talking to people, laughing and joking, if I knew I had this… this repulsive _thing _on my face? Ewww!'

'Wasn't it there when you woke up this morning?' Charlene asked

'No!'

'Actually,' chimed in a timid voice from the other end of the bathroom. 'I think it just kind of appeared during French class.'

Laila and Charlene spun around to look at the girl. The voice belonged to a girl named Laura who sat a few seats away from Laila in French.

'It wasn't there when the class started,' Laura mumbled. 'But when you got up to leave, it was.'

Laila turned back to Charlene. 'This is so gross! Do you have any concealer?'

Charlene let out a short laugh. 'No amount of concealer is going to cover that baby up!'

'What am I going to do?!' Laila cried dramatically, as if someone had just told her she had three minutes left to live. 'I can't walk around looking like this!'

'Hey, hold on a sec,' Charlene said screwing up her face in disgust.

'What?!' Laila asked with annoyance.

'Turn your head towards the light,' Charlene told her. 'It looks like you have two more coming up on your cheek.'

'And one on your jaw,' Laura added.

'Gross,' Charlene said taking a step away from her friend. 'I hope you're not contagious.'

'You'd better go see the nurse,' Laura told her.

**OOO**

'Caleb, you have to stop this.'

'Stop what?' he asked.

Jess sighed and slid her arm through his as they walked into the science lab. 'I saw the way you were looking at Tyler a moment ago, the way he was looking at you. Don't pick a fight with him, please.'

'Me? Pick a fight with him? I think you've got it the wrong way around. He's the one looking for trouble.'

'Just don't give it to him, okay?' Jess said pleadingly. Caleb didn't answer. Students were filing through the door and taking their seats. The class filled rapidly. The last one through the door was Luke.

'Hey Luke,' Caleb said as he walked passed him and Jess.

'Hey,' he replied before quickly taking a seat at the back of the class.

'What are you doing?' Jess asked in a whisper.

'It's called being friendly,' Caleb replied. 'You should try it sometime. I don't know what you've got against the guy. Do you have a problem with him?'

'There's no problem,' Jess snapped defensively. 'I just don't trust him.'

'Why not?' Caleb asked. 'He told you the truth about himself didn't he?'

'We hardly know him Caleb,' Jess whispered. 'I don't want to get involved with his kind.'

Luke could hear every word they were saying. He sighed sadly. From the sounds of things Jess didn't even want him as a friend. He could see her point though. 'Nice' vampires were few and far between. Most of them were selfish, arrogant and extremely cold hearted. In all his years Luke had only met two, maybe three vampires who broke the stereotype.

Luke tried to lose himself in his work for the rest of the lesson. He was, however, aware of Tyler and his friends tossing derivative remarks in Jess and Caleb's direction. The two witches maintained a dignified silence.

It wasn't until the lesson was drawing to a close and everyone started to tidy away the materials they had been using to conduct their experiments, that things got nasty. Tyler was carrying a rack of test tubes filled with a cocktail of chemicals over to the basin. As he passed Jess and Caleb's bench Jess stepped out and banged straight into him.

'Watch it!' Tyler yelled nastily as the test tubes tipped over and the contents spilled all over Jess's arm.

'Ow!' Jess gasped, instinctively clutching her arm.

'You bastard!' Caleb yelled lunging for Tyler. 'You did that on purpose!'

'Hey! Break it up!' Mr Logan bellowed from the front of the class. But the boys didn't listen, taking it in turns to throw punches at each other. Tears were streaming down Jess's face. She was obviously in a lot of pain. Luke hurried over to her.

'Let me take a look,' he said gently. Jess shook her head and wiped away her tears.

'If you want to help try stopping Tyler and Caleb before they kill each other,' Jess told him in a pained voice.

'I'm more concerned about you,' he replied. Mr Logan approached them.

'Jess,' he said hurriedly. 'Go to the nurse. Luke you go with her.' He then turned to Caleb and Tyler. 'Stop this! Stop this at once! Do you boys hear me?!'

Luke rested his hand on Jess's back and steered her towards the door.

'I don't need an escort,' Jess told him as they left the room. 'I can go by myself.'

'I just want to make sure you're okay,' Luke replied. 'I don't like to see people in pain. Not all of _my kind_ are heartless you know.'

Jess blushed, looking a little ashamed of herself. 'You heard what I said before?'

'Don't worry about it,' he said, his intense blue eyes gazing sincerely into hers. 'You're not alone in your opinions.'

'Or unjustified,' Jess replied looking away and breaking eye contact. She noticed that he still had his hand resting on her back. Part of her wanted to push it away but she decided not to. She didn't want to overreact. There was nothing sleazy or pushy about the way he was touching her, if anything it was comforting.

Finally Jess spoke up. 'When you first came here I didn't pick you out as part of the Night World. I never would have guessed you were a vampire.'

'Not even when you saw me at The Onyx?' Luke asked.

'Not even then.' Jess replied.

'So should I take that as a compliment?'

Jess shrugged her shoulders. 'If you want to. Just as long as you realise it wasn't meant as one.'

Luke found himself smiling in spite of himself.

'What?' Jess asked.

'Aren't witches meant to be all sweetness and light? I mean no offence, but you're kind of a bitch.' Luke hadn't meant to call her that, it had just slipped out.

Jess stopped dead in her tracks. 'I am not!' she said indignantly. Luke couldn't help but laugh.

'Are you laughing at me?' Jess asked in disbelief. 'I can't believe you're actually laughing at me! Here I am covered in chemical burns and all you can do is laugh!'

'I'm sorry,' Luke said, still grinning. 'I didn't mean to laugh. And I didn't mean to call you a bitch. You just make me nervous, that's all.'

'_I_ make _you_ nervous?' Jess replied. 'A lowly little witch like me makes a vampire nervous?'

Luke began to usher her down the hall again. 'Would you stop going on about the fact that I'm a vampire?' he asked, sounding a little exasperated. 'There is more to me than that you know.'

'Like what?' Jess asked letting her curiosity get the better of her. Before he had a chance to answer they had reached the sick bay. Just as they were about to step in, Laila stepped out. Jess and Luke visibly recoiled. Laila's entire face was completely covered in huge red blisters.

'Not one word!' Laila yelled at them before racing off down the hallway.

'Tally…How could you?' Jess whispered to herself.

'What's wrong?' Luke asked.

Jess looked up at him and sighed. 'So you think witches are all sweetness and light, huh? Welcome to the real world.'

'What? You mean that girl? A witch did that to her?'

'Not just any witch,' Jess replied. 'That was the work of my darling sister.'

'Maybe my laughing at you wasn't such a good idea,' Luke said with a smirk. 'If that's what you girls do when someone pisses you off then I'm definitely staying on your good side!'

'This isn't funny!' Jess snapped. 'I went to a lot of trouble to protect Laila – but what good did it do?'

'Hey at least you tried,' Luke told her. 'But these things happen. Your sister isn't the first witch to play a trick on a human she doesn't like, and she certainly won't be the last. It's not like she'll get hauled up in front of the elders for it.'

'And how would you know?' Jess asked dismissively.

'I've been around long enough to know how the Night World works,' Luke replied.

'There speaks the voice of experience,' Jess said sarcastically. 'You're the same age as me Luke, I have just as much experience of the Night World as you do.'

'Actually…' Luke began.

'Actually what?' Jess asked.

'Actually I am older than you,' he admitted.

'By what? A few months maybe? Big deal.'

'A little more than that.' Luke replied quietly.

Jess looked at him for a few seconds. 'Hold on. So you're saying you're not seventeen?'

'Technically…..no.'

'So exactly how old are you?' Jess asked feeling extremely curious.

'Three hundred and fifty eight.'

'What?!' Jess cried, almost bursting Luke's ear drums. Just then the nurse shuffled out of the sick bay.

'What's going on out here?' she asked with a degree of agitation.

'Accident in the science lab,' Luke replied.

'Someone spilled chemicals on my arm,' Jess added.

'Okay, well I'm busy with someone at the moment,' the nurse said motioning for them to enter the waiting room. 'You just rinse your arm off then take a seat. I'll be with you as soon as I can.'

With that the nurse shuffled back into the examination room leaving Jess and Luke alone. Luke walked over to the washbasin in the corner and let the water run.

'Come on,' Luke said. 'Put your arm under here.' Jess walked over and put her arm under the water.

'I don't get it,' Jess said finally. 'If you're that old what are you doing in high school?'

'The education I got when I was younger wasn't worth much,' Luke began. 'And it's nothing compared to today's standards. Last year I decided I finally wanted to do something with my life. I want to go to college. I want a career.'

'And it took you three hundred years to realise that?' Jess asked sceptically.

'Well I always knew I had eternity to do it, so I was in no rush.'

'What do your family think about your decision?' Jess asked.

'My family died a long time ago,' Luke replied quietly.

'You're not lamia?' Jess asked just as quietly. Suddenly images from Jess's dream were flashing before her. 'You were made?'

Luke nodded. 'It wasn't my choice. I got involved with some people from the Night World. Vampires. I was in over my head.'

Jess didn't notice the way he was looking at her. All she could see was how Luke had been in her dream, lying in the dirt, his throat torn to shreds, blood everywhere. Suddenly a barrage of information hit Jess and she found herself speaking involuntarily, in no more than a whisper.

'You were an unskilled labourer…the little money you earned came from your job as a brick make....You borrowed money from some men… you didn't know they were vampires until it was too late…'

Luke nodded. 'That's what happened. They killed me when I couldn't repay them.'

Jess shivered, suddenly feeling sick and light headed. 'H-how did I know that?' she stuttered. Luke was filled with a surge of hope, but he didn't let it show. _Is she remembering?_ he asked himself. _She must be! She is! She's remembering! _Before Luke had a chance to say anything the bell rang and the nurse came out of the examination room.

'Okay young lady, follow me.' Jess stepped away from Luke and towards the nurse.

'Jess?' Luke said quietly, his voice tinged with hope.

'Yeah?' she replied turning back to face him.

'We… we… we still need to work on that essay.'

Jess nodded. 'Come over to my place after school.'

Luke nodded back before making a move to leave.

'Luke!' Jess called out. He stopped in the doorway and looked back at her.

'Yeah?'

'Thanks….. for coming with me, for making sure I'm okay.'

Luke smiled slightly. 'I'll see you later.'


	4. Chapter 10

For the rest of the day Jess had a knot of anxiety in her stomach. All that information about Luke – it had just hit her, it had come out of nowhere. It was more than a little unsettling. What was going on? First the dream, now the unexplained insights? Jess had to talk to someone and she knew just the person.

Caleb had been kept behind after school for detention so Jess had to walk home alone. But instead of following her usual route she took a detour, eventually finding herself outside her Aunt Diandra's cosmetics store.

Upon entering she was greeted by a smiling Diandra crouched on the floor, stacking a shelf with bottles of sweet smelling bath oils and humming to herself. But the moment her aunts' eyes set upon Jess, the smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown.

'Uh oh,' Diandra said in a worried tone. 'Something's wrong isn't it? What's happened? Is it your Dad? Tally?'

'No, no,' Jess told her. 'They're fine. It's just – I have a question to ask you.'

Diandra got to her feet, the frown still plastered across her classically beautiful face. 'Well this sounds serious,' she said walking over to Jess and wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders. 'Let's go through to the back.'

Jess nodded and managed to muster an uncertain smile as she followed her aunts' lead and entered the storeroom. A few minutes had passed and they were sat opposite one another each holding a mug of Diandra's special tea.

'Guaranteed to ease worries and promote well being,' Diandra said raising her mug. 'Plus it tastes great, even if I do say so myself.'

Jess was silent. She looked down at the table and took a slow sip of tea.

Diandra sighed. 'Are you going to tell me what's wrong or am I going to have to get out my tools of torture and force it out of you? Don't think I won't.'

Jess set the mug down on the table and began to knead her hands together nervously. 'I was wondering,' she began uncertainly. 'Do we have any seers in our family, you know… psychics, clairvoyants?'

Diandra looked off into the distance as if trying to recall something, tapping her chin as she did so. 'Let me think,' she mused. 'I'm pretty sure there is now you mention it. Yeah, Great Aunt Petula – grandma's sister. She had the gift, I'm sure of it. Why do you ask?'

'Well is that kind of thing hereditary?' Jess asked.

'Yeah,' Diandra replied, 'The power to see the future does manifest in some witches, not in all of us though.'

_The power to see into the future?_ Jess thought to herself. _I haven't actually seen into the future**…**Only the past._Jess's sense of unease escalated.

'What about the power to see the past?' Jess continued. 'You know, way, way, way into the past – like hundreds of years. And the power to know something about a person – something you couldn't possibly have known.'

'Jess what's going on?' Diandra asked bluntly.

Jess sighed. It was time to fill Diandra in. She told her all about the recurring dream, Luke's appearance in it, the way he'd used the exact words the man in her dream had used, the information about him that had just hit her like a bolt out of the blue.

'So I'm a psychic right?' Jess asked finally.

Diandra shook her head thoughtfully. 'Hmmmm,' she began. 'I don't think so. There is another explanation.'

Jess swallowed nervously. She wasn't interested in any other explanations – or to be more exact, the one other explanation it was most likely to be.

'You know about old souls don't you Jess?' Diandra asked her seriously.

Jess rested her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. 'Yeah,' she mumbled. 'But I don't think that's what's going on here.'

Diandra leant across the table, placed her hand under Jess's chin and nudged her head up so that they were face to face. 'Well I do.' She told her solemnly. 'It sounds to me like you've met someone from a past life. And not just any old someone, it sounds like this guy was your husband.'

Jess got to her feet and began to pace the floor. 'No, that can't be true,' she muttered to herself.

'Jess,' Diandra said as she got to her feet and walked over to her niece. 'Do you realise how lucky you are? You've been reunited with someone you lost a long, long time ago. Someone you obviously loved very much.'

'It's all just a coincidence,' Jess protested. 'Just like Dora said it was. A coincidence!'

'Well there's a way you can find out for sure…' Diandra said mysteriously.

'Maybe I don't want to find out!' Jess cried. 'Even if it is true, whoever I was back then, I'm not that person anymore. And whatever happened in that life time, well, it doesn't matter to me!'

Diandra sighed. 'Aren't you even a little bit curious?' she asked.

'No!' Jess yelled.

'Yeah right,' Diandra said sarcastically.

'It's true,' Jess insisted.

'Well all the same,' Diandra said with a knowing smile. 'I have some herbs and a little incantation that will make things much clearer.'

'I'm not interested,' Jess said firmly. Diandra paid no attention to her. Instead she walked over to a cupboard, rummaged around in it for a few seconds then pulled out a small pouch of herbs and a tiny little scroll.

'Here,' she said passing them to Jess. 'Make an infusion out of these herbs, then just before you go to sleep, drink it and say the incantation.'

'You're not listening to me,' Jess groaned.

'Oh I'm listening to you alright,' Diandra replied. 'And what I'm hearing are the protests of a girl who is afraid to know the truth. There's only one way to overcome your fears Jess, and that's to face them.'

Reluctantly Jess took the pouch and the scroll off Diandra. 'I'd better get going,' she said quietly. Diandra gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.

'You take care of yourself Jess,' she called after her niece as she left. 'And remember, this is a huge blessing! You should consider yourself very lucky!'

Jess stepped out on the street and sighed. Part of her wanted to dump the herbs and scroll and forget all about this nonsense. But another part of her couldn't help but wonder…..

**OOO**

When Jess got home she was greeted by the smell of roast lamb drifting out of the kitchen. That could mean only one thing, her father was home. He worked as a journalist for the local paper and he rarely made it home before eight pm. Jess walked into the kitchen. Tally was sat at the table reading a magazine and her father was stood by the stove. Jess gave him a hug.

'You're home,' she said smiling, glad to see him.

'Yeah,' he replied. 'Why are you so late?'

'I went to see Aunt Diandra,' she told him.

Tally slapped her magazine down on the table and gave Jess a cold stare. 'Why did you do that?' she asked, her tone as sharp as a razor.

'None of your business,' Jess replied.

Tally got to her feet and marched over to Jess, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her out of the room.

'Ow!' Jess yelled.

'No fighting!' their father called after them. Once they were out of his earshot Tally let go of Jess's arm.

'I take it you know about the terrible misfortune that his befallen poor little Laila,' Tally said with a wicked grin.

Jess took a few steps towards Tally, backing her up against the wall. 'Yeah, I saw what you did to her,' she replied. 'And it made me sick! How could you?!'

Tally chuckled, 'It was easy actually, and what's more, thanks to a magical loop hole a witch from The Onyx told Petra about, its consequence free.'

'What you did,' Jess whispered, 'it wasn't just cruel – it was evil.'

'And heaps of fun too,' Tally laughed.

'Oh Jess!' their father called from the kitchen. 'I forgot to tell you, a boy from school stopped by – Luke I think he said his name was – he said he was really sorry but something had come up and he couldn't work on the essay tonight.'

'Thanks Dad,' Jess called back. The ever present knot of anxiety in her stomach eased slightly. She was glad that she wasn't going to have to face him tonight, not after her meeting with Diandra. She needed sometime to centre herself, sometime to construct a cool, calm exterior she would be able to hide behind.

After dinner the doorbell rang. 'I'll get it,' Jess said bounding out of the kitchen and over to the front door. She knew instantly from the silhouette cast against the frosted glass that it was Caleb. Jess flung open the door. There on the doorstep stood Caleb, looking remorseful and more than a little worse for wear, with one black eye and a busted lip.

'Hey,' he said timidly.

'Caleb!' Jess gasped rushing forward to hug him. She hadn't seen him since the incident in science. 'Come in!'

Caleb stepped into the house shutting the door behind him. 'I feel terrible,' he said holding her close to him.

'Why?' Jess asked, her voice muffled against his chest. 'Because Tyler kicked your ass?'

'He did not kick my ass!' Caleb replied indignantly. 'You think I look bad? Wait until you see him!'

Jess couldn't help but laugh. 'So why do you feel bad?'

'Isn't it obvious?' Caleb asked. 'You were hurt and I didn't even check to see if you were okay, I just pounced on Tyler without a second thought.'

'Yeah that was pretty stupid,' Jess agreed.

'Do you think you could find it within yourself to allow me to beg for your forgiveness?' he asked.

'You're already forgiven,' she said with a smile balancing on her toes to give him a kiss.


	5. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

The sun had finally set and the road was deserted. Luke hunched his shoulders and buried his hands deep into the pockets of his jacket, bracing himself against the cold wind. _This had to happen tonight,_ he thought to himself glumly. _Just my luck. The first time I had a legitimate reason to be alone with Jess and I had to bail on her. Typical._

He wrenched a hand out of his pocket and glanced down at his watch. Where the hell was she? He listened to the gentle sounds of the night, straining to hear something that would tell him how close she was. The abrupt sound of fluttering wings startled him. He spun around quickly, in time to see a large owl swooping down from a tree, grasping a small rodent in its outstretched talons. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, his shoulders relaxing - only for them to tense up again a second later as a slow condescending laugh drifted through the air like an invisible fog.

'Well would you look at that? Luke's afraid of a little birdy.'

Luke turned to face the owner of the voice. She was stood about twenty feet away from him, her soft dark curls blowing gently around her face, a vaguely amused smile curling her lips, black fire burning just below the surface of her gleaming eyes. Luke stared at her, his expression cold and unwelcoming. 'What? No hello hug? No 'hey baby, good to see you'? Luke, my feelings are hurt.' Her voice was light, teasing.

'What do you want Starla?' His voice was flat and hard, annoyance curling at the edges.

'Why, to see you of course,' she purred, slowly tilting her head to one side.

'You said you were in trouble,' he replied coldly.

'Did I?' she asked, mock confusion clouding her face.

'Damn it Starla, I told you not to follow me here! Now just tell me what you want!'

'But I already told you, I wanted to see you.'

She began to take slow steps towards him, her eyes fixed on him with a cool intensity.

'And I told you I don't want anything to do with you anymore!' He yelled angrily.

'Was I expected to believe that?' Her laughter flowed over Luke as she came to a stand still only inches away from him, her hands coming up to rest on either side of his neck. 'We both know you didn't mean it.'

'Oh I meant it,' his voice was quiet and intense, a steely conviction burning in his eyes. 'Every single word.'

The look of amusement slowly fell from her face and she took a step away from him. 'So is she here?' Her playful voice had turned icy.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' Luke replied. Starla made a sound that was half disbelief, half scorn.

'Oh of course you don't,' she said, her dark eyes narrowing, her face twisting into a scowl. 'Of course you didn't come running to this boring little town to look for_ her. _Just like you didn't go running to any of those other places in a pathetic, misguided attempt to search for someone who doesn't even exist!' She spat the words out as if they were poison. As though if she didn't get them out she would choke on the taste.

'I came here because I wanted a normal life,' he began. 'What chance of that do I have if I've got you following me around all the time?'

'So I'm a burden? Is that what you're telling me?'

'Just get out of here Starla,' Luke said with a shake of his head, turning to leave.

'Oh you're pathetic!' She called after him. 'You're pathetic, and misguided, and _selfish_! And I'm not the only one who thinks so, either. Lavinia says exactly the same thing!'

Luke stopped suddenly, turning to face Starla. 'Don't call her that! That isn't her name!'

'It is now,' Starla replied, the twisted smile returning to her face. 'Things change Luke, I would have thought you'd have realized that by now.'

'I won't tell you this again Starla,' his voice was low and controlled. 'Stay the hell away from me.' With that he turned his back on her and hurried off into the night.

'Keep running Luke,' her voice carried on the air. 'Keep trying to make up for your sins. Try all you want, it won't make a difference. You're an animal. And even if you ever did find that elusive first love of yours, she'd tell you the very same thing!'

**000**

The clock struck three pm and the shrill sound of the bell pierced the air, signaling the end of the day. _Finally,_ Jess thought to herself, snapping her notebook shut. She sprang to her feet, grabbed her backpack and hurried to the door. So far today she'd managed to avoid Luke, it would be just her luck if she bumped into him now. They'd only had a couple of classes together but Jess had made sure that she'd always been the last one to arrive and the first one to leave, never giving Luke a chance to approach her.

Her attempts at dodging him had been blatantly obvious, but that hadn't bothered Jess. She could not, would not speak to him, it was as simple as that. She weaved through the crowd of students in the hallway, head down, willing herself to be invisible.

'Hey Jess!' Caleb called. She looked up and saw him standing by some lockers a few feet ahead of her. Luke was with him. She stood in the middle of the hallway, cursing silently. She glanced around quickly, looking for a good excuse not to join them. A tall boy with messy black hair, the colour of ravens wings was striding down the hall quickly.

'Can't talk now!' Jess yelled in her boyfriends direction as she took off after the dark haired boy. 'Gotta speak to Jared!' Caleb raised an eyebrow, as if he were silently asking if he'd heard her right, a confused frown furrowing his brow. 'Jared! Hey, Jared!' Jess said loudly as she fell in step beside him. The tall boy whipped off his headphones and gave her a quick sideways glance.

'Jessica,' he said in a bored, flat voice. Jess could sense Caleb and Luke's eyes on her as she walked away from them.

'So...' she began uncertainly, not sure exactly what she was going to say to him.

'What do you want Jessica?' he asked with a light note of irritation. He looked down at her as though she were an annoying dog yapping at his heels.

'Well,' Jess mumbled feebly,' I just thought I'd say hi.'

'If you're trying to dig for information on your little sister, forget it,' he said, slipping his headphones back on. 'I'm Tally's friend, not yours.'

He sped up, obviously trying to leave Jess behind, but she quickened her pace matching him step for step, knowing that they were still in full view of Caleb and Luke.

'What's you're problem?' Jared snapped, once he'd realized she wasn't going away.

'No problem, we're just going in the same direction that's all.' Jess replied. He veered off to the right and Jess followed him, before realizing he was about to go into the boy's bathroom.

'You going to follow me in here too?' He asked sarcastically. Jess shook her head and backed away. At least she'd put some distance between her and Luke, now she could make a quick getaway. He and Caleb had no chance of catching up to her now, unless they sprinted down the hall, which she doubted they would.

Jess made her way out of the building and waited for Caleb by his car. She hadn't thought he'd bring Luke with him, but a few moments later she could have kicked herself when she saw Caleb enter the parking lot, happily chatting to Luke as if they were old friends. Jess let out a disgruntled sigh and ran towards the nearest car, a few spots away from Caleb's. She ducked down behind it and waited, pretty sure that they hadn't seen her. Seconds later she heard Caleb's voice approaching.

'I don't know what's wrong with her, she's been acting weird all day.'

Just then the engine of the car she was hiding behind came to life with a low growl. _No!_ Jess thought desperately. _No, no, no no! _ She hadn't noticed anyone in the drivers seat. The car suddenly pulled away, leaving her crouching on the floor in plain view of Caleb and Luke.

'Jess?' Caleb said, doing a double take. 'What are you doing down there?'

'I - I lost an earring.' The second the old cliche had slipped out of her mouth she wished she hadn't said it. But what else could she have said? _Why, I'm hiding from Luke of course! _She'd rather have them think she was a liar than have them know the truth. Although from the look in Luke's eyes she could see that he already knew the truth.

'You're not wearing earrings,' Caleb said flatly.

Jess stood up and clutched her hands to her ears. 'Yes I am,' she replied. 'They're tiny little studs, you probably didn't notice them.'

Caleb shrugged his shoulders. 'I told Luke I'd give him a ride home. You coming?' Jess hesitated. If she told them she'd suddenly decided to walk they'd know she was up to something. Jess didn't really care what Luke thought, but Caleb? Caleb wouldn't let her odd behavior slide, he'd press her until she told the truth. She sighed and nodded her head, walking to the car.

'You go in front,' she told Luke without looking at him.

'Uh... thanks,' he replied. Caleb looked at her, his eyes narrowing with suspicion, before walking around the car and getting in the drivers side.

Across the parking lot the dark eyed girl stood and watched the three of them climbing into the car. He was with a boy and a girl. _A gir_l. Starla shook her head with disbelief. She was the one. Even from so far away Starla could tell it was her. So Luke had finally found her. Little Miss Perfect. A swell of jealousy surged through her. She wasn't going to let Luke get away with just dumping her the way he had. Luke belonged with her and the others, not with a bunch of pitiful humans. And if she couldn't convince him of that, then maybe someone else could.

She pulled a small phone out of her jacket and punched a couple of buttons. She held the phone to her ear as she watched them drive away.

'Hello?' said a voice on the other end of the phone.

'Lavinia, it's me. You're never going to believe what I've found out.'


	6. Chapter 12

**Authors Note: Thanks to all my reviewers, especially Piscean Wisdom – sorry I've been holding back on the interaction between Jess and Luke, I hope this chapter makes up for it! Happy Reading: )**

**Chapter Twelve**

An awkward silence filled the car. Jess twisted in her seat pulling at a strand of her long copper coloured hair that had gotten tangled up in the seat belt. Caleb drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while Luke just stared out through the window blankly.

_Someone had better say something soon_, Jess thought to herself. _One more moment of silence and I'll scream_. She gave one last hard tug on her hair and it came free. She flicked it over her shoulder, rested her head back against the seat and closed her eyes, pretending she was somewhere else, _anywhere_ else.

'Oh Jess,' Luke's voice cut through the silence. 'I'm sorry about last night but something came up.'

'Don't worry about it,' Jess replied.

'Maybe we could meet up tonight,' he twisted around in his seat turning to look at her through the gap between him and Caleb. His glittering green eyes looked straight into hers, his eyebrows raised hopefully. Jess's stomach did a somersault. This was exactly what she'd been dreading; alone time with her former husband.

The thought was so ridiculous that it brought a short, unexpected laugh to her lips. Luke frowned.

'What' s so funny?' Caleb asked.

Jess waved a hand dismissively. 'Oh nothing,' she replied. 'I'm just remembering a joke Dora told me earlier.'

'Right,' Caleb said, his eyes still on the road. The tone of his voice told Jess that he was getting slightly annoyed with her.

'So...You, me,' Luke continued. 'This essay, we work on it tonight? Yes or no?'

Jess gave a slight shrug of her shoulders and forced a smile. 'Sure,' she said. They had to do this sooner or later. Jess figured the best thing to do would be to just get it over and done with.

**000 **

Later that evening Jess was pacing her room nervously. She glanced at the clock on her bedside cabinet. Luke would be arriving any second. Was it too late to call and cancel? No, she couldn't do that even if she wanted to, she didn't have his number. Apart from her the house was empty. Tally had gone out with Petra, and her father was over at Diandra's helping her fix a burst pipe.

She flopped down on her bed and pulled a pillow over her face. 'Relax,' she ordered herself. 'Just relax. Maybe this won't be so terrible. Forget the fact that you've been having these weird dreams. Forget the fact that you knew all that stuff about him. Luke Maguire is nothing more than a fellow student who you happen to be working on an english assignment with. You can do this.'

Jess lay on her bed for a moment taking calming breaths. And then she heard it. The sound she'd been dreading. The doorbell.

**000 **

This was it. Luke couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so nervous. He actually had butterflys. He hadn't had butterflys at the thought of seeing a girl since... since a _long _time ago. There was only one girl who could ever make him feel this way. He stood on Jess's porch, tugging at his shirt and running a hand over his hair.

He knew Jess wouldn't really notice if his clothes were creased, or if his hair was a little messy. She only had eyes for Caleb, but still... He wanted to look his best. Luke heard the sound of soft footsteps padding down the stairs. A second later a shadowy figure appeared in silohette against the glass on the door.

It opened with a click to reveal Jess standing in the doorway, a pleasant smile on her face. Luke knew it was fake, but after over three hundred years of living without any of her smiles at all he'd take what he could get and be glad of it.

'Hey Luke,' Jess said politely. 'Come in.' She stepped aside and gestured for him to enter.

'Nice house,' he noted as he gazed around the entrance hallway.

'Thanks,' Jess replied. 'Can I take your coat?' Luke nodded and began to shrug his coat off.

Jess took it and Luke watched her as she hung it up on a coat stand by the door. _She really is beautiful_, he thought to himself. Even with the tension she was fighting so hard to cover up clouding her face, she still looked like an angel to him. The way her hair fell around her in a mild disarray of copper waves, the way her dreamy blue eyes seemed to speak a language all of their own, the delicate curve of her cheek.

It was all so familiar, triggering a million memories made long ago. No one else had ever compared, not in all those years. Luke moved his attention to a painting on the wall before Jess turned back to him. The last thing he wanted to do was make her more uncomfortable than she already was, and gazing at her like a love sick puppy was not going to help matters.

'So, can I get you anything before we start?' Jess asked. 'A drink maybe?'

'Nah,' Luke replied. 'I'm fine. Thanks anyway.' She led him through to the dining room and motioned towards the chairs.

'Take a seat.' Seconds stretched into minutes as they sat opposite one another, neither of them said a word. Jess was routing around in her book bag, pulling out sheets of paper, text books and pens. Luke couldn't think of a way to break the ice. Should he just stick to the matter at hand and only talk about the assignment? He didn't really want to do that, he wanted to get to know Jess, but it was more than a little obvious that she did not want to get to know him. Was it really just because he was a vampire, he wondered. Was she really that prejudiced? He didn't think so.

_A direct approach is what's needed here, _he decidedSo she was a witch and he was a vampire - they were different - but there was something they had in common. 'So the Night World people around here,' he began. 'They don't seem that friendly, I mean they don't really stick together.'

Jess looked up from the pile of papers she was leafing through. 'You've been here a couple of weeks and already you think you've got us all worked out?'

'I was just making an observation,' he replied. 'I mean, that's just the way things seem to me.' Jess took the top off a highlighter and began marking out passages on the page of notes in front of her.

'The vampires,' she said without looking at him, 'Keep themselves to themselves. But the witches, well we're a lot closer. So are the shapeshifters.'

'But none of you mix with each other?' Luke asked.

'There's no need to,' Jess replied. 'It's not like we have anything in common.'

'How do you know if you don't even try to get to know each other?' Luke noticed a cloud of irritation roll over Jess's face, her shoulders stiffening.

This wasn't what he'd wanted, he hadn't intended to turn this into an arguement, but there was something about Jess that made him think the only thing they would ever do was argue. A few moments passed and Luke realised she wasn't going to answer his last question. Time to try a different tactic. 'How's your arm?' he asked.

'It's healing,' she replied. 'I went to see my aunt and she mixed me a balm that would speed things along.' She shoved a piece of paper in his direction. 'Here, these are the points you need to cover in your part of the essay. Can you handle them?'

Luke looked down at the paper and skimmed through the words. 'Sure, no problem.'

'You must have learnt a lot during your lifetime,' Jess said, still not looking at him.

'Not really,' he replied.

'Not really?' she repeated. This time she did look at him, one eyebrow arched questioningly. 'You're the oldest vampire I've ever met by a mile, and you're saying in all those years you haven't learnt anything?'

'I didn't say I hadn't learnt _anything_,' he replied. 'It's just that what I have learnt doesn't really amount to much.'

'So what have you being doing all this time?' Jess asked.

'You mean you're interested?'

'I'm curious. I mean you're old. Like really, really _old_. And here you are working on a high school essay with a seventeen year old girl. Shouldn't a vampire your age be...wealthy? Powerful?'

'I'm not interested in that stuff,' he replied honestly. 'With the very rare exception most wealthy, powerful vampires are corrupt.'

Jess made a sound of derision. '_All _vampires are corrupt, Luke. Regardless of how much money or power they have.'

'That's not true,' Luke said shaking his head seriously.

'Well I think it is,' Jess replied.

'Well you don't know what your talking about!' Luke snapped. He hadn't meant to speak so harshly but he couldn't help but feel the things she were saying were a direct attack on him. And that hurt. Jess reached for a book and began reading. Luke could tell that she was trying to hide the fact that his little outburst had shocked her.

'What?' he said. 'You didn't expect me to defend _my kind_?' he asked her.

Jess shrugged her shoulders, eyes fixed on the book infront of her. 'All the vampires I've ever met are selfish and ruthless, they're willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. They don't even give a second thought to the consequences. They just don't care.'

'And so you automatically assume that I'm the same?' Luke asked looking at her intently. Was he fighting a losing battle here? It seemed that way. Jess had some deeply entrenched views when it came to vampires. Did he expect to just wander into her life and for all those conceptions to dissolve?

Jess closed the book and looked at him. 'I'm sorry if I've offended you,' she began. 'But what reason have I got to think you're any different?'

Luke smiled sadly. 'None I guess,' he replied. 'But you don't even know me. And you're not willing to give me a chance. Seems to me the only reason for that is because I'm a vampire.' He shrugged before adding. 'I thought better of you.'

Jess's jaw dropped open and a disbelieving laugh bubbled out of her mouth. 'What! _You thought better of me! _You may be hundreds of years older than I am Luke but that doesn't give you the right to patronise me!'

Luke raised his hands up defensively. 'You hate vampires, I get it. Maybe I shouldn't take it so personally.'

'Well maybe you should!' Jess said jumping to her feet. 'Maybe I don't need to get to know you! Maybe I've already got you figured out!'

'Perhaps that true,' he said calmly relaxing back in his seat. 'After all, you did know all that stuff about me, about how I became a vampire.' He waited for her reaction. If there was ever going to be a time to find out if she did remember him, then maybe this was the best one he was going to get. Apprehension swept across her face as she looked down at him, searching for a reply.

'I'm a witch, Luke,' she said finally. 'I have certain powers. I can sense things.'

'That's one explanation I guess,' he said quietly, shifting his gaze from her to the carpet.

'And I suppose you have another one?' her reply was quick and angry. He looked back up at her and knew that she'd instantly regretted saying it.

'Haven't you?' he asked earnestly. Jess looked very uncomfortable, her eyes were teary and her lower lip trembled. In that moment Luke realized, without a doubt, that she knew. She remembered. The silence stretched for what seemed like an eternity. Finally Jess found her voice.

'Why did you come here Luke?' she asked in a whisper.

'Well I didn't come for a fight,' he said shaking his head and getting to his feet. "I came to work on this stupid essay but seeing as you can't stand being in the same room as me I guess I should go.'

He began to walk to the door when Jess's voice stopped him. 'That's not what I meant,' she said. 'Why did you come to this town?'

Luke turned to look back at her. They both knew what was going on but neither of them would say it.

'Truthfully? I don't know. But I've been around long enough to know that everything happens for a reason.' Tears began to slide down Jess' s face and Luke had to fight back the urge to go and comfort her. Somehow he didn't think she'd appreciate it.

'I'm sorry we can't be friends,' Jess said quietly.

'It's not just the fact that I'm a vampire is it?' They stood on opposite sides of the room staring at one another sadly.

Jess shook her head. 'No. No, it's not. I just... I'm... This is too weird.' It sounded as though she'd said the last four words to herself, but Luke didn't have to ask what she was talking about.

'I didn't mean to make things difficult for you,' Luke told her. 'I wasn't expecting this either.' He watched her as she bowed her head and stared at the floor, desperately hoping she would say something to reassure him. It became clear to him that she wasn't going to. 'We can do our separate parts of the essay on our own,' he said finally. Jess nodded.

'I guess I'll see you at school.' Without another word he turned and walked out of the room.

A few seconds later Jess heard the front door open and close quietly. He was finally gone. Her tears flowed uncontrollably. Wasn't that what she'd wanted? For him to leave? Well, now he had. So why did she want him to come back?


	7. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

The tears had not stopped. Jess sat at the foot of her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, moonlight casting a silver glow across the room. She had never felt so alone. Who could she talk to about this? Who would understand what she was going through? Dora had been dismissive when Jess had tried to talk to her about it. The only other person who knew what was going on was Diandra. Jess knew what Diandra's advice would be. Her aunt would tell her to explore her feelings, to get in touch with her past.

That was the last thing Jess wanted to do. If it hurt this much when she only knew a few things about what had happened in her past life, how would she feel if she knew everything? There was no way she could have any sort of friendship with Luke, no way that the two of them could make a connection. If they did, what would happen?

Jess lay a tear stained cheek against her knees .When she thought about it rationally, she realised that she couldn't carry on ignoring Luke, running around the nearest corner whenever she saw him at school, hiding behind cars, rushing out of lessons the second the bell rang. It wasn't fair on either of them.

_Maybe I shouldn't be so quick to rule out acknowledging the truth,_ Jess thought. _There's no reason I can't just admit to Luke that I remember that I was a part of his past, and leave it at that. Then there will be no more secrets and no harm done. _

That was what had been driving her so crazy. The secrets. Having it all bottled up and hidden away made her feel terrible. So terrible that it was overshadowing everything else in her life. What was worse was that Caleb didn't know the first thing about any of this. He was usually the first person she shared her secrets with. Why had she been so reluctant to tell him this time?

Jess thought back to the first day she'd met Luke and the answer arose instantly. It was because she had been attracted to him. At the time she'd dismissed it as a meaningless little crush that would go away if she ignored it. Allowing herself to admit that it could be more than that was not an option. The prospect of sharing any of this with Caleb brought on a wave of anxiety. That was why she hadn't told him.

Caleb was no fool. Maybe he hadn't realised exactly what was going on, but he knew something was wrong. Jess knew he was just biding his time, waiting for the perfect moment. Once it arrived he would ask Jess what was going on with her, and knowing Caleb the way she did she knew he wouldn't settle for anything less than one hundred percent honesty - the total unabridged version of whatever it was that had her acting so strange.

It was time to tell him. Jess gave a weary sigh and leaned against the bed. She had to do it tonight. If she left it until tomorrow she'd find a thousand reasons not to. It was best to do it now while her resolve was strong and fresh. Standing up slowly she looked over at the phone. _Call him now_, she said to herself. _Before you change your mind._

Settling down on her bed she reached for the reciever. It felt cold and awkward in her hand, but Jess pushed back her uncertainty and dialled his number. It rang three times before he answered.

'Hello?'

'Caleb, it's me.' Her voice was small and weak.

'Jess? Have you been crying?' Calebs voice was a mix of caring concern and panic.

'I need you to come over.'

'Now?' he asked. 'What's happened? Are you okay?'

'I'll tell you when you get here. You are coming right?'

'Of course,' he replied. 'But I thought you and Luke were working on your essay tonight. Is here still there?'

'No,' Jess said quietly. 'He left. Can you just come over here now please?'

'Jess your scaring me, you're not hurt are you?'

'No,' Jess replied. 'I just need to talk to you.'

'Give me ten minutes.' They said goodbye and hung up. There was no turning back now. After that telephone call Caleb would be determined to get to the bottom of whatever it was that had upset her.

The sound of the front door slamming startled Jess.

'Jess! Jess! Are you home!' Tally's voice was frantic as she raced up the stairs. Seconds later the bedroom door flew open with enough force to leave a small dent in the wall as it smashed against it. Tally's eyes were wide and wild as she hurried into the room, flinging herself at Jess and grabbing her hands.

'Jess! You have to come with me!' Tally said quickly.

'What?' Jess asked, pulling her hands away from her sister. 'I don't have to go anywhere with you.' The two girls had barely said a word to each other since Tally had admitted to casting the spell on Laila.

'Jess, please!' Tally begged. 'This is really, really serious!' Jess frowned at Tally. Something must have been terribly wrong. Tally never, ever came to Jess asking for help like this, and although Tally hadn't said she needed Jess's help, Jess knew that was what this was about.

'I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on.' Jess said, firmly standing her ground.

Tally looked sheepish and a sense of dread filled Jess. Tally never _ever_ looked sheepish. Jess didn't even think her little sister was capable of it.

'It's Laila,' Tally said finally. 'I think something went wrong with the spell. Very, very wrong.'

**OOO**

Laila lay in the hospital bed unconcious. Every visible inch of her skin was covered in the bloody red blisters, a few were dry and had scabbed over, the rest were bright and angry, seeping a thick clear fluid. But for the shiny blonde hair that pooled around her on the pillow she was unrecognizable. Jess stood a few feet away paralised with horror. Tally was beside her sobbing quietly. Petra was in the corner, a ghostly pale, trembling from head to toe.

'I didn't mean for this to happen,' Tally sobbed, her voice barely a whisper.

'What did you to _do_ to her?' Jess choked back a wave of nasuea as she asked the question. Neither of the girls answered.

'My brother's girlfriend is a nurse at this hospital,' Petra said quietly. 'She was on duty when they brought her in last night. She told Pete about it and he told me. They don't know what's wrong with her.'

'_Tell me what you did to her_!' Jess shouted angrily. None of them were worried about any of the hospital staff coming in while they were there. The girls would never have been allowed in to see Laila if they had just waltzed in and asked, so Jess had used a mild mind control spell to enable the three of them to come in and remain unnoticed until they left. It was a spell Dora's older sister had taught her years ago. Jess had never used it before and she had never intended to, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

'We mixed a potion,' Tally said wiping away her tears. 'We broke into her room one night while she was asleep, took the amulet you'd made for her and slipped a few drops into a glass of water that was by her bed.'

'What was the potion for?' Jess asked, struggling to keep herself from shaking, partly out of revulsion and partly out of anger.

'It was supposed to bring on the manifestation of the three worst fears of whoever drank it.' Tally whispered. For the second time that night Jess couldn't stop the tears from falling. It was just too much. The knowledge that her little sister, who she loved with all her heart, had done this to someone was just too much. And to know that she had actually intended for Laila to experience the reality of her three worst fears come true? It cut through her heart like a knife. Jess had always known Tally had the tendency to be bad, but this? This was beyond malicious, beyond horrendous. This was truly evil.

'What are we going to do?' Petra asked.

'We need to tell someone what you did,' Jess replied sternly. 'Someone who knows about this kind of magic.'

'Diandra?' Tally asked.

Jess thought for a moment before shaking her head. 'Diandra wouldn't go anywhere near this kind of magic. Even if she does know something about it, I doubt she'd know how to fix this.'

'So who do we go to?' Petra asked.

'Well who did you get the spell off in the first place?' Jess replied.

'A witch I met at The Onyx,' Petra told her. 'But she was from out of town. I don't even know where she is now.'

'And who did you get the potion ingredients from?' Jess asked. 'The same witch?'

Tally shook her head. 'Malachi.'

'Malachi Thorpe!' Jess yelled. 'What were you doing going to a vampire for potion ingredients!'

'They weren't you're average run of the mill ingredients Jess,' Tally replied. 'They were hard to get hold of. Malachi has connections.'

Jess sighed angrily. 'Well if the ingredients needed to cast the spell were hard to get hold of then that means the ingredients to fix this will probably be hard to get our hands on too.'

'So what do we do?' Tally asked.

'First of all... we tell Diandra. I know I said she wouldn't know how to fix this but maybe she knows someone who does.'

'That's it?' Petra asked cynically. 'That's your brilliant plan?'

'You try coming up with a better one!' Jess snapped. 'This is your fault after all!'

'There has to be something else we can do,' Tally said.

'There is,' Jess replied. 'Whoever Malachi got the stuff from must know what it is we're dealing with here. You go and see Diandra and I'll go and find Malachi.'

'On your own?' Petra asked. 'I don't know if that's such a good idea. He's kind of creepy.'

'Why don't you get Caleb to go with you?' Tally suggested.

Caleb! Jess slapped her palm to her forehead. She'd forgotten all about him. She'd asked him to come over and then went running off without it even occuring to her to call him back and tell him what was going on. Jess refocused on the task at hand and shook her head.

'No,' she said. 'We're pretty close to The Onyx. Malachi's probably there right now. I don't want to waste time waiting around for Caleb.

'Thank you for this Jess,' Tally said quietly.

Jess turned to her, eyes narrow and filled with anger. 'I don't want you to thank me Tally. In fact, once this thing is resolved, I don't want you to speak to me ever again.'


	8. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

He was a shapeshifter. Jess made the observation as she wandered through The Onyx. He was up on the stage playing an acoustic guitar and singing in a voice that was way too amazing to be human. Tables were packed with Night People listening to the singing shifter. There weren't many humans in tonight. Jess hoped that didn't mean Malachi was out finding his blood donors somewhere else.

It wasn't as busy as the last time when she'd come looking for Tally, but it still wasn't easy to locate Malachi. The lights were too dim and the veil of cigarette smoke that hung in the air made Jess squint her eyes up with irritation. She paused by the bar, resting against it and scanned the crowded tables.

'Hey, what can I get you?' the bartender asked.

'Oh, nothing. Thank you.'

'You sure?' he asked leaning across the bar and leering at her. 'It's on me.'

'She said no,' the familiar voice startled Jess. She turned to her left and found herself looking into Luke's glittering green eyes. The bartenders gaze flitted between the two of them before he walked away leaving them alone.

'Luke. What are you doing here?' Well this was awkward. She hadn't been expecting to see him until tomorrow, and she definitely hadn't expected him to be here. He shrugged his shoulders and looked away from her.

'I could ask you the same question.' He made the statement without even looking at her, his eyes focussed on the optics lining the wall behind the bar.

Under normal circumstances running into Luke unexpectedly would have flustered her, especially after what had happened earlier, but now she had more important things to worry about. 'I'm looking for someone, maybe you know him - Malachi Thorpe.'

'Yeah, I know him - vaguely.' Luke replied. 'He's around here somewhere. Don't tell me you're friends with him?'

'Not even close,' Jess said. 'But it's really important that I speak to him.'

'Does Caleb know you're here?'

'No, this was kind of a spur moment decision.'

'Well,' Luke began. 'I bet he wouldn't be too happy about you coming down here to speak to Malachi without him.'

'Like I said,' Jess replied. 'It was a spur of the moment thing.'

Luke nodded. 'If you run into any trouble give me a shout.'

'I'll be fine,' Jess told him. Not wishing to drag their uncomfortable attempts at conversation out any longer Jess walked away. The shifter on stage finished his song and was rewarded by a round of applause, a few members of the audience whistling and whooping. _I really hate this place_, Jess thought as she wandered through the tables. It was impossible to be here without thinking back to that night two years ago when she and Dora had first come.

They hadn't really known what to expect - they had been too excited to give it much thought. Some of the older witches they knew at school were forever talking about it and what an amazing time they'd had there. One thing was certain - Jess and Dora had had a night that neither of them would ever forget. It was the first time that either of them witnessed first hand just how heartless and cold blooded the night world and the people in it could be.

Soon after arriving they had been approached by a small group of vampires asking them for help with a 'problem'. They hadn't liked the sound of it and politely asked the vampires to leave them alone.

'You'll do what we say, _witch_!' The tallest of the vampires had grabbed Dora's wrists and twisted them behind her back, two more stepped forward and grabbed Jess in the same way. They proceeded to march the two girls over to a door which led to a large empty room. The vampires had the girls heads pushed down to face the floor so that when they entered they didn't notice the other girl who was tied to a chair in the middle of the room.

'Dora! Jess!' cried a voice filled with a desperate fear. Jess recognised the voice even though it was obscured by terror. It was Ellen Nicodemou, a human girl from their school. She was one of the very few human girls that Dora and Jess actually got along with. Ellen was the envy of practically every girl at Stanford DeWitt High School - the reason for this was her boyfriend, Cameron Granger. Unbeknownst to Ellen and all those other girls Cameron was a vampire. Jess had never liked him - he was cold, cruel, calculating and used his charm and charisma to collect humans who lived to obey him, like loyal little puppy dogs.

Cameron was stood in the corner. 'Jessica, Dora, so nice of you to stop by.'

'What's going on?' Dora yelled angrily.

'Well,' Cameron began matter of factly. 'Ellen here is being a very bad girlfriend.' The vampires had let Jess and Dora look up to face the room. They could see the silent tears trailing down Ellen's bewildered face. 'You see, I asked her a question. And she won't tell me the answer.'

'I've already told you a million times, Cameron,' Ellen sobbed. 'I don't know what you're talking about! Why are you doing this?' The answer to this soon became clear. Cameron's' _other_ girlfriend, Kyra - who also happened to be a vampire - had gone missing. Rumours were circulating. Apparently a vampire hunter had come to town and Kyra wasn't the only bloodsucker who was unaccounted for. For some reason - known only to themselves - the vampires were convinced Ellen knew who the mystery hunter was.

'We've had practically every witch in this club parading through here tonight trying to cast a truth spell on her,' Cameron continued. 'But for some reason she's immune. I can't even read her thoughts.' Jess knew why that was. Mr Nicodemou had dated a witch for almost two years, a friend of Diandra's. They were so in love that he even proposed - which made her confess her secret to him; she was a witch. Mr Nicodemou hadn't liked that and had broken off their relationship immediately. She was still very fond of Ellen, even after the break up, and when she found out that the girl was dating Cameron she cast a protection spell on her making her immune to mind manipulating magic. Jess knew this because Diandra had told her - her aunt was the biggest gossip around.

'So, this is where you come in,' Cameron said confidently. 'You're a very powerful witch Jessica, if you can't break her no one can.'

'Even if I could _break_ her, as you so charmingly put it,' Jess said angrily. 'There's no way I would. You guys are _scum!_' I would never ever help a bunch of low life parasites like you!'

Rage bled into Cameron's eyes instantly. 'Low life! Scum! Parasites! How dare you be so disrespectful! We are vampires, _gods_! You and all the other lowly witches should get down on your knees and worship us!'

'Someone is seriously deluded,' Dora said patronisingly.

'What did you say, _witch!' _Cameron roared angrily.

'Nothing, oh great one,' she replied sarcastically.

Ellen was taking deep, heaving breaths. 'Vampires? Witches? What are you talking about! What is wrong with you people!' This was the very reason Jess kept her distance from the humans - they just couldn't handle the truth, and when they stumbled across it things tended to get _really _messy. That night at the Onyx was no exception. Cameron flew into a wild rage, ordering the vampires to teach Jess and Dora a lesson. Jess knew vampires were strong, but the beating she got that night made her realise just how strong. And as for Ellen? No one really knew the exact details of what happened to her, but soon after she and her father moved away, and according to Diandra, Ellen was now a patient in a private psychiatric unit. Apparently Cameron had found someone who could break her, someone who's magic was much stronger than that of the witch who'd cast the protection spell.

They tore into her mind and ripped it apart, finding nothing useful, and leaving her in a state so bad that she didn't even know her own name. It made Jess sick, and as the memories of that night engulfed her she found herself crying again. Through her tears she finally spotted him. Malachi was sat at a table by the wall, alone.

She wiped away the tears angrily and strode over to him. 'Malachi,' she said coldly, standing beside his table.

'Jessy.' Malachi looked up at her with faint but sweet surprise. He looked around as if searching for someone. 'Where's that handsome boyfriend of yours?' A disturbing smile was stretching across his face slowly.

'I know you've been helping my sister,' Jess replied, ignoring his question.

'Ah yes,' he said with a smirk. 'She's cute that sister of yours' - even cuter than you.' He flipped open a box of cigarettes and shoved one between his lips, cupping the flame of the lighter as he lit the end.

'Tell me where you got the ingredients for that spell.'

Malachi let out an abrupt laugh, harsh and mocking. 'Now why would I want to do a thing like that?'

'Just tell me Malachi!' Jess yelled. 'This is serious! Someone could die because of what Tally's done!'

Malachi raised his eyebrows and gave an appreciative nod of his head.

'She's a powerful little witch, I'm impressed.'

'If you don't tell me who your contact is right now, then I'll - I'll -'

'You'll what?' Malachi smirked.

'Then I'll make you pay.'

Malachi was laughing again. 'Ooohhh, I'm scared!'

Jess's blood was boiling. 'She's not the only powerful witch around here Malachi. If you don't help me then I'll personally see to it that you feel ten times the amount of pain that you helped my sister to cause.' Jess wasn't used to making threats like this, but she meant every word of it. She'd had enough of these people. It was all well and good taking the moral high ground and shaking her head at them disapprovingly, but if she didn't do something to stop them they would just go on hurting people, ruining innocent lives for their own enjoyment. She hadn't been able to stop what had happened to Ellen, but it wasn't too late for Laila.

Malachi was still laughing. Jess took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to start shaking him. 'Look Malachi,' she said through gritted teeth. 'All I'm asking is for you to give me the name and address of the witch you were dealing with.'

He shook is head and took a long hit of the cigarette. 'No can do Princess, that's classified information.'

'Don't you even care that someone could die if you don't help me!' Jess cried. She knew it was a stupid question, but she just didn't know how to reason with him.

'Why should I?' He asked coldly.

'Because I'm begging you!' Jess yelled.

A huge grin lit up his face. 'You're begging me now? He let out more raucous laughter. 'This is just too funny!'

'Malachi, please! What do I have to say to get you to help me?'

'Now that is an interesting question,' he replied thoughtfully. 'Leave it with me. I'll get back to you when I've decided whether or not there actually is anything that a pathetic little wannabe like you can say to make me help you. But don't hold your breath.'

'I'm not leaving until you tell me what I want to know,' Jess said fiercely.

'Then you're going to be waiting for a very long time.' Something inside Jess snapped. Images of Lailas' disfigured body lying lifeless in that hospital bed flashed vividly through her mind. Without thinking she took a step forward and lunged at Malachi, grabbing him by the shirt.

'Listen to what I'm saying you piece of shit!' Malachi's eyes grew wide with a mix of shock and amusement. 'You may think that you and your vampire buddies can go around this town doing whatever the hell you want, but that's going to stop!' Malachi opened his mouth to speak but was silenced as Jess shook him abruptly. 'Shut your mouth Malachi! I'm not done talking yet!'

Malachi's eyes narrowed as Jess moved in closer to him speaking slowly and deliberately. 'Now I'm going to tell you this for the last time. You are going to help me. Got it?' The amusement was gone from his face, replaced by a cold emotion that Jess couldn't name. He was pissed off.

'No one tells me what to do Jessica, especially not some goody goody witch. Now get your hands off me before I break every bone in your body.'

'I'm not moving until you agree to help me.' Jess replied in a low steely voice.

'Don't say I didn't warn you.' She didn't even have a chance to react. Before Jess knew what was happening Malachi had gathered all his strength, grabbed her roughly by the arms and threw her into some nearby tables. She landed with a bone bruising thud, her head rebounding off the table as it smashed down. Over at the bar Luke was on his feet.

'Jess!' He ran across the club, vaulting over chairs and knocking past anyone in his way. He had been watching the whole thing - he cursed himself for not stepping in earlier, but he knew Jess would not have appreciated his efforts.

'Jess! Are you okay?' He was leaning over her, gently brushing the hair out of her eyes, touching her arm softly as if she would shatter any second. 'How do you feel? Where does it hurt? Do you think you've broken anything?' Jess struggled into a sitting position and swatted his hand away. It was clear to Luke that she wasn't injured. She was irritated. Really, _really _irritated. Her eyes were fixed on Malachi who was still sat at the table, smoking his cigarette, calmly watching the shifter up on stage.

'Get out of my way,' Jess said hopping off the table and pushing past Luke.

'Jess...' Luke called after her as she marched back over to Malachi. 'I don't think that's such a good idea.'

Malachi glanced up as she approached his table, tremors of anger rolling through his eyes.

'Don't you ever, ever touch me again!' Jess said locking eyes with him. Malachi stubbed the cigarette out and relaxed back in his chair.

'Take my advice Jessica,' he said with menace. 'Get the fuck out of here. You are really starting to piss me off, so far I've been nice - '

'Nice!' Jess screamed. 'Nice! You call throwing me halfway across this club _nice!'_

Luke walked up behind her and placed a hand on her arm. 'Come on Jess, let's go.' Jess jerked away from him quickly.

'You keep your hands off me!' she yelled at Luke. Jess was angrier than she had ever been, and anyone who got in her way tonight was going to get the full force of that anger.

'Listen to him Jessica,' Malachi said coolly. 'Go.' Jess had lost her ability to be reasonable and it had been replaced with the overwhelming urge to be irrational. Letting out an angry scream of frustration she reached for an empty glass bottle on a nearby table and swung it towards Malachi, shattering it across the front of his face.

'Jess!' Luke cried out in shock.

'I'm done fooling around Malachi!' Jess yelled. 'And don't think I'm scared of you because I AM NOT!'

Thick rivulets of blood welled up from the gashes and trickled down Malachi's face. He stuck the tip of his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, catching a few drops.

'That was not smart,' he said in a low growl.

'Come on Jess,' Luke said, taking hold of her more forcefully this time. 'We're leaving before someone really gets hurt.' He ushered her away through the staring crowd that had gathered around them.

'This isn't over Jessica!' Malachi called after them. 'This is not over!'


	9. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

'Something's wrong,' Tally whispered.

'You bet something's wrong young lady!' her father yelled angrily. 'There are just no words to describe how disappointed I am. Where did I go wrong? Am I such a bad parent that I could actually raise a child who could do something so heartless?'

'Larry,' Diandra said putting a calming hand on her brother's. 'This isn't your fault.'

'I wasn't talking about what I did,' Tally said quietly. 'It's Jess, something's wrong with Jess.' Tally was sat with her father and her aunt in Diandra's tiny living room. After leaving the hospital she had come straight here to tell Diandra what she had done. Her father was still in the middle of fixing the burst pipe when she got there, and as much as she wanted to wait until he was gone to confess all to Diandra, her aunt had picked up on her obvious agitation and forced it out of her.

Now Tally was being overwhelmed by strong feelings of anguish. Feelings that weren't hers. The only other persons feelings she'd ever been able to sense were Jess's and that had only happened once, two years ago. The memory of that night made Tally shudder. It had been the night Jess and Dora had been badly beaten at the Onyx.

'What about Jess?' her father asked quickly. 'What's wrong with her?'

'I don't know,' Tally stuttered. 'She's upset. I don't think she's in any danger, but something just doesn't feel right.'

'I'll call your house,' Diandra said getting to her feet, 'Just to make sure she's okay.'

'She's not there,' Tally said shaking her head.

'What do you mean she's not there?' her father snapped.

'She's trying to find out who the witch is that supplied the ingredients for the potion.'

'Why didn't you just tell her?' Larry Devereaux asked angrily.

'Because I don't know,' Tally replied. 'I got them through a vampire at The Onyx.' Her father let out a harsh sigh and covered his face with his hands.

'Please don't tell me that's where she is,' he said with annoyance.

'She insisted on going,' Tally told him weakly.

Without another seconds hesitation her father leapt to his feet grabbing his car keys off the coffee table.

'Diandra, take her home please. I'm going to find Jess.'

**OOO**

Jess didn't feel the cold as she emerged from The Onyx. The adrenaline that was pulsing through her veins had left her numb to everything except the anger she was feeling. Luke took out his phone and called a cab. Jess leant against the wall and shut her eyes before opening them again quickly - every time she tried to block out the world around her she was bombarded by visions of Laila, and by a sense of guilt so great that it crushed her heart. She glanced down at her hands and for the first time she noticed that one of her palms was bleeding. Nausea swept over her, quickly followed by panic.

She hated blood, especially when it was her own. There wasn't much, but she noticed that there were small shards of glass embedded in her skin. She began to whimper and cry as she looked down at her hand in shock.

'Jess, what's wrong?' Luke asked walking over.

'I've got glass in my hand,' she managed to say between small tortured sobs. Luke stopped in front of her and took hold of her hand gently, inspecting the damage.

'Well that's what you get for trying to be a bad ass,' he said softly. Jess burst into full blown sorrowful sobs. 'Hey, hey, hey, it's not that bad.' Luke said soothingly. 'Okay, so the bad ass joke wasn't funny - I'm sorry, but look, these little pieces of glass are nothing. I can get them out no problem.'

Jess slid to the floor, still crying uncontrollably, resting her head in her one good hand. 'What did I just do in there?' she whispered. Luke sighed before sitting down on the pavement beside her.

'You picked a fight with a vampire,' he said matter of factly. 'That was very brave of you - very, very stupid, but brave none the less.'

'What am I supposed to do now?' she said to herself softly.

'I called a cab,' Luke replied. 'I'll take you home.'

'No, I didn't mean that,' Jess whispered.

'You mean Malachi?' Luke asked. Jess nodded. 'Don't you worry about him,' Luke told her rubbing her back soothingly. 'I won't let him hurt you.'

Jess let out a small laugh. 'I'm not worried about him hurting me,' she said. 'I mean I know I should be, but I'm not. What bothers me is the fact that I just blew any chance of getting him to help me.'

Luke frowned. 'What did you need his help for?' Jess sighed before filling him in on the events that had occurred after he'd left her house earlier. Recounting them like that made it seem all the more real to Jess, all the more hopeless and by the time she'd finished she was shaking, consumed by tears.

Luke put his arm around her and drew her into him, he couldn't help it. So the two of them weren't exactly the best of friends, but he couldn't stop himself from wanting to comfort her, and she couldn't stop herself from wanting to be comforted. She leant her head against his chest and cried as he wrapped his other arm around her and rested his head on top of hers.

Before she could stop them, her arms were reaching around his waist and she was clinging onto him tightly. She couldn't help it, she needed someone to hold onto, someone to make her feel safe - and strange as it was Luke did make her feel safe. It was as if they'd held each other this way too many times to count. Quickly, the pain in Jess's heart began to lessen, all she could feel was Luke's arms around her, his strong chest supporting her weight. A serene calmness flowed through her like a soft gentle breeze.

'Everything will be fine,' Luke whispered against her hair. 'Even if you don't find any witches who can help you, I know some who might be able to. Things are going to be okay Jess, I promise you.'

Jess pulled away from him slightly, looking up at him, about to speak. But as her eyes met his the words disappeared. He placed a hand on her face and wiped away the last of her tears, looking at her tenderly. Suddenly images began to bombard her again - but this time it wasn't Laila. It was Luke, when he was human - when the two of them were in love. He had looked at her that way so many times, and the memories of this made Jess's tears return.

'Hey, don't cry,' he whispered gently. 'Don't cry.' His voice was so soft and filled with affection. She had heard him speak in this tone before, but only in her dreams. _Wherever you go, I'll find you. We'll be together again. _Those words were the last ones he'd ever said to her before the vampires had killed him. Before she lost him. That was the promise he had made, and he had kept it. He had found her. They were together again. As if reading her mind Luke leaned in slowly, and before either of them realised what was happening Luke's lips were on hers. The world fell away as she melted in to him. The hard concrete of the walls and the pavement disappeared and were replaced by a soft golden haze, enveloping them, separating them for the rest of the world.

Suddenly Luke pulled away. 'I'm sorry Jess,' he said quietly. 'I shouldn't have done that.' But Jess didn't hear him, she was leaning into him kissing him intensely _I missed you! _Jess thought. _I missed you so much, and I didn't even realise until now._

Luke was kissing her back, holding her gently. _So you do remember me,_ Luke said in his mind. _And you're admitting it! There hasn't been a day gone by that I haven't missed you Jess. Not one single day. _The sound of a car gunning its engine as it roared down the deserted street broke their connection. Jess looked up to see her father's car racing towards the club.

'Dad!' she said in shock. She began to untangle herself from Luke's arms and the two of them got to their feet just as her fathers car came to an abrupt halt on the curb. The drivers' side door flew open and Larry Devereaux leapt out of the car, running towards his daughter.

'Oh Jess! Thank God you're all right!' He cried flinging his arms around her.

'How did you know I was here?' she asked.

'Tally.' That one word was filled with so much tension that it hit Jess like a brick. So he knew. He knew what his little baby girl had done and he was no happier about it than Jess. 'What happened to your hand,' he asked, noticing the blood. Jess looked at the ground.

'It's kind of a long story, and not one I'm particularly proud of.'

'Come on,' he said wrapping his arm around her shoulders with a sigh. 'Let's get you home.'

'Uh, Dad?' Jess said as he steered her towards the car. 'Hang on a second.'

'What's wrong?' he asked.

'Nothing,' Jess replied. 'It's just...this is Luke.' She gestured towards the green eyed boy and Larry noticed him for the first time. 'He's a friend of mine.'

Larry stepped forward and shook Luke's hand. 'Ah yes, we've met briefly,' he said. 'You stopped by the house the other day.'

'Yeah,' Luke replied.

'Well hop in,' he told Luke, nodding towards the car. 'I'll give you a ride home.'

'Oh that's okay,' Luke replied. 'I called a cab.'

'Nonsense,' Larry replied. 'Get in.'

With no more discussion the three of them climbed into Larry's car, Jess and Larry upfront, Luke in the back. _What a night, _Jess thought silently. As she looked out at the bleak landscape speeding by in a blur she knew that the worst was yet to come.


	10. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Jess had gone straight to bed when she got home, too exhausted to speak to Tally, too tired to even try to get the glass out of her hand. All she wanted was to curl up under the covers and pretend that this day had never happened. She lay there waiting for sleep to come, but it didn't. Instead, her head was filled with thoughts, images and feelings. _I'm such a screw up!_ She thought angrily. _First I can't protect Laila against Tally, then I go and have a fight with a vampire - an actual fight, with real violence - and then to top it all off I kiss Luke! This is got to be the worst day I've had in a very long time._

There was a light tap at her door. 'Jess? Are you awake?' Tally's voice travelled in from the hallway. Jess sighed, ignoring her sister. She didn't want to speak to her, not if she could avoid it. After a few seconds Jess heard the sound of a piece of paper being slid under the door. _Nice try Tally,_ Jess thought. _But if I don't want to hear what you have to say then I definitely don't want to read it._

**OOO**

Tally stepped away from the door. She knew Jess was mad at her. _Everbody _was mad at her. If she'd have known what would happen to Laila then she wouldn't have done it. She had just assumed that Laila would have a few hallucinations - she didn't think she'd be putting her life in danger. Now everyone was treating her like she was some kind of unholy monster, they were disgusted by her - she could see it in their eyes. Diandra and her father were downstairs right now, no doubt talking about her. Maybe she should apologise one more time - she'd been saying she was sorry all night long, but maybe if she kept saying it they'd start to believe her.

Slowly she crept down the stairs, pausing outside the kitchen. Larry's hushed voice floated out into the hallway. 'Why? Why would she do this, D? I just don't understand how she could do anything so...so...' He sounded close to tears.

Diandra sighed wearily. 'Don't forget who her mother is Larry. Tally's always been so much like Stella.'

A hot anger flared through Tally at the mention of her mothers name. Stella Devereaux had walked out on her family years ago when Tally was only four years old. She didn't remember much about Stella except for the fact that she had been a terrible mother and an even worse person.

'That's no excuse. She's Jess's mother too,' Larry replied. 'And Jess would never dream of doing something so cruel.' The anger inside Tally grew. She hated it when they compared her to Jess - it was impossible to match up to her, so why should she even try? In that moment Tally realised it would never matter how many times she said sorry, nor would it matter how much she meant it. They had all made their minds up about her. As far as they were concerned Tally was a disappointment to them all - a monster in the making.

The red headed witch turned her back on the kitchen and made her way back upstairs. _If that's the way they want it, _Tally thought bitterly, _then that's the way they'll get it. Why bother trying to make-up for my mistakes? They'll never give me a chance. Never._

**OOO**

Her hand was so sore. Jess opened her eyes sleepily and looked down at her palm. The glass was still there and all the memories from the day before came back to her. A sickness churned in the pit of her stomach. Surprisingly, she'd had a peaceful nights sleep, but now she was awake she felt as though she was in the middle of a nightmare.

She climbed out of bed and walked over to her bedroom door. She noticed the envelope on the floor and remembered that Tally had pushed it under her door last night. Looking at it now she noticed that the handwriting wasn't her sisters; it was Calebs. She reached down for it quickly and ripped it open.

_Jess,_

_I came over like you asked but no one's here. What's going on? I hope you're okay. Call me when you get this._

_I love you,_

_Caleb xxx_

_Great,_ Jess thought. _Just great._ He had been expecting a phone call from her last night and she hadn't even thought to call him to let him know what had happened. He was either going to be very annoyed or very worried. The thought of going to school was becoming less appealing by the second. She was going to have to tell him everything that had happened. But could she? Could she really tell him everything? That would mean telling him about what had happened with Luke. She was so ashamed - how could she have kissed him? What had come over her? It felt so right at the time but now it seemed so wrong. How could she do that to Caleb? She was a terrible girlfriend. Suddenly she thought of Luke and all she felt was anger. _He _was the one who'd kissed her first! How could he put her in such an awkward position?

She couldn't think about that now. The only thing she could focus on was getting through the day without going crazy. If she could just do that then maybe everything would be okay. Although somehow she doubted it.

**OOO**

'Okay, last one.' Jess winced and looked away. The bell for first period had just rang and she was sat in the nurses room having the glass shards removed from her hand. 'All done,' the small plump woman said wiping at her palm with an antiseptic wipe. 'I'll just strap a bandage on and you'll be free to go.'

She was almost ten minutes late by the time she entered Mr Logan's classroom. 'Nice of you to join us Miss Devereaux,' Mr Logan said sarcastically as she hurried into the classroom, her head staring down at the ground. She didn't need to look up to know that both Luke and Caleb had their eyes fixed on her. She slid into her seat beside Caleb and looked up at him nervously.

'I am so sorry,' she whispered to him, her eyes misting with tears. Caleb shifted along the bench to be closer to her and put an arm around her shoulder, worry furrowing his brow.

'What's wrong?' he whispered.

'It's a long story. I'll explain later.'

The lesson dragged, but finally the bell rang. Jess and Caleb got to their feet but before either of them had a chance to speak Dora and Luke were approaching from either side.

'Jess you look terrible!' Dora told her at the same time as Luke asked, 'Are you okay?' She closed her eyes and shook her head in agitation.

'Can you guys just leave me alone for a little while?' she asked. 'I need to talk to Caleb.'

Dora looked puzzled but nodded her head, 'Yeah sure.' Luke nodded too, but Jess noticed that his expression was not one of bewilderment. He thought she was going to break things off with Caleb, she realised.

_Talk about arrogant!_ Jess thought angrily. She shot an icy glare in his direction and suddenly he did look bewildered. Jess didn't care. At that moment the most important thing to her was getting things back on track with Caleb. She slid her arm through his and led him out of the classroom.

'What's going on Jess?' Caleb asked once they were out in the hallway.

'We have to have a really long talk about something,' she said solemnly. They both had a free period and headed out to a secluded spot on the far side of the courtyard. They sat on a patch of grass under the shade of a tree and Caleb looked at her expectantly.

'So...?' he asked.

'I really don't know where to start,' Jess said gazing off into the distance.

'How about telling me what that phone call was about last night? And where were you when I came over? Did you get the note I left?'

Jess nodded, 'Yeah but not until this morning. I got home really late and Tally slipped it under my door while I was asleep, or at least while I was pretending to be asleep. I would have called you straight away if I'd have found it last night.'

'You really scared me,' Caleb told her. 'I thought something terrible had happened.'

'It has,' Jess whispered. Caleb took hold of her hand then looked down at it in shock.

'What happened to your hand?'

'I got glass in it,' she replied quietly.

'How did you do that?'

'I...I...got into a fight,' she said with a sigh.

'A fight!' he asked incredulously. _'You!' _

Jess gave a slight remorseful smile. 'You think that's unbelievable? Wait until you find out who the fight was with.'

'Who?' he asked.

'Malachi,' she said in a whisper.

'Malachi!' Caleb yelled. 'As in Malachi Thorpe!'

Jess nodded.

'Jess! What the hell is going on with you!' Jess sighed and proceeded to fill him in on what had happened last night after she'd gotten off the phone with him. She left out the part about her kissing Luke.

'I can't believe this,' Caleb said with shock. 'I don't know what's harder to get my head around - Tally almost killing Laila or you smashing a bottle in Malachi's face.'

'To say that it was a strange night would be an understatement,' Jess said quietly.

'Wait a second - didn't you say that all this happened after our phone call?' he asked.

'Yeah,' Jess replied.

'So if none of that stuff had happened when you called me why were you so upset?'

Jess took a long sigh. This was it. The moment she'd been dreading. She had to tell him - everything.

'I was upset,' Jess began shakily. 'Because I had to tell you something and I wasn't sure how you would take it.'

'What?' he asked, his face full of concern.

'It's about Luke.' Jess said seriously. Caleb's eyes narrowed in suspicion. 'I didn't tell you this before because I was just hoping that if I ignored it it would go away.' Caleb didn't interrupt, he just sat there, holding her hand and listening intently. 'You see, I've been having these dreams for a long time, really weird dreams. And, well... I kind of found out that these dreams are memories from a past life.'

'What does this have to do with Luke?' Caleb asked.

Jess stared down at the grass for a long time before looking up into Caleb's kind ocean blue eyes. 'He's part of the dreams, Caleb. He's part of my past life. He was my husband.'

Caleb's lips parted but it took him a few seconds to find his voice. 'Are you sure?' he asked finally.

Jess nodded. 'We had an argument last night before I called you. I realised I had to tell you what was going on. Keeping it a secret from you was driving me crazy.'

'What aren't you telling me Jess?' he asked quietly, still holding her hand. Jess bit her lip nervously. If she didn't tell him the whole truth the guilt would just eat her up and torment her - plus the fact that keeping the truth from him was unfair to Caleb.

'Well like I told you,' Jess continued. 'Luke was at The Onyx when I got there, he was the one that stopped the fight between me and Malachi.'

'And?' Caleb asked.

'And...and...we kissed.' Caleb's face fell instantly and his eyes filled with hurt. Suddenly Jess was crying.

'Caleb, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen, really I didn't - it just, I don't know why I did it, I can't explain, but -'

'Do you love him?' Caleb whispered, cutting her off mid sentence.

'Caleb, I love you!' Jess replied reaching towards him.

'I know you love me Jess,' Caleb said his face set in stone. 'But that wasn't the question. I asked you if you loved Luke.'

Jess sighed. 'Life times ago,' she said wearily. 'I loved him life times ago - but whoever I was then, that isn't who I am anymore.'

'Of course it is,' Caleb replied sadly. 'You may have a different name and you might not look the same, but your soul? That hasn't changed Jess. That's the same. The same soul that was connected to Luke.'

'I didn't ask for this, Caleb' Jess whispered, silent tears sliding down her face.

'So what now?' Caleb asked.

'What do you mean?' Jess said feeling confused.

'What happens with us? What happens with you and Luke?'

'Nothing happens with me and Luke,' Jess replied adamantly. 'You're the one I want to be with Caleb. I'm so sorry that I betrayed you. But if you can't forgive me... I'll understand.'

'I need time to think about this,' Caleb said getting to his feet. Jess nodded. He looked at her sadly before turning and walking away. Jess dropped her face into her hands and let her tears run, soaking the bandage. Why did this have to happen to her? Why was she cursed with a little sister who got her kicks from torturing humans? Why did Luke have to show up the way he had? Her life was a mess and there was nothing she could do about it.

**Authors Note: Okay, so that was chapter sixteen and there are still quite a few things that need to happen before I can wrap the story up, which means there are lots more chapters to come! Please stick with it - but tell me if it's getting boring, or if I'm dragging things out too much! Also, even though I've already decided who Jess is going to end up with in the end I'd love to know who you think she should choose, Caleb or Luke? It was kind of a difficult decision for me to make and I'd like to know what other people's opinions are. This is only the first story of three that I plan to write about these characters but she will choose one by the end of this story. **

**Thank you to every one who's reading this - I just hope it hasn't got boring yet, but like I said there are still a few plot twists to come, so please stick with it:)**


	11. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

'Okay, I've been asking around and I've made a few discoveries.' Diandra was looking from Jess to Larry as she spoke. Tally scowled, assuming Diandra had decided that she wasn't worth making eye contact with. The four of them were sat around the Devereaux's kitchen table discussing the Laila situation. 'I spoke to a witch I went to college with, she's an expert when it comes to all the different branches of magical practice. From what I told her she said it sounded as if this spell was derived from the ancient magical tradition of Vedauria.'

'Vedauria?' Jess asked. 'I've never heard of it.'

'Not many people have,' Diandra replied 'There are only a handful of true practitioners in the whole country - and none of them are the type of person who goes around helping people out of the goodness of their hearts.'

'So what do we do?' Larry asked.

'We find one of them.' Diandra said matter of factly. 'And get ready to break into your piggy bank Tally,' she added finally turning to her youngest niece. 'Because the kind of help we need isn't going to come cheap.'

'You expect me to pay someone?' Tally asked sounding annoyed.

'Yes!' her father yelled. 'That is unless you want the death of an innocent girl on your concience Tallulah. We are all going to have to chip in to raise enough money.' Their father was really mad, Jess couldn't remember the last time he'd called Tally by her full name.

'Innocent?' Tally sneered. 'Laila Warner is a lot of things - innocent ain't one of them!' Jess couldn't believe her ears. It seemed that all of Tally's remorse had evaporated over night and she was back to her usual obnoxious self.

Their father gripped the edge of the table and spoke through gritted teeth. 'Just go to your room. Go to your room and stay there.'

Tally got to her feet scowling. 'Don't you want me where you can see me?' she asked sarcastically. 'For all you know I could be up there mixing potions to wipe out half the towns population.'

'Tally,' Diandra said, warning her niece gently. 'Don't push us.' Tally knocked her chair to the floor and stalked out of the room.

**OOO**

Luke was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He just couldn't figure her out. After what had happened yesterday he thought the two of them had come to an understanding - they still loved each other. Okay, so neither of them had actually said those exact those words, but they had kissed and it felt so right - she had spoken in his mind, she'd told him that she'd missed him. So why had she spent the whole day ignoring him again? Maybe it had been stupid of him to expect her to break up with Caleb, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that she loved him very much - and Caleb was in love with her too.

What right did Luke have to turn up and try to come between them? He liked Caleb, he didn't want to screw around with his life - but just as he had always known that there was only one girl for him, he believed that Jess would know there was only one guy for her. And Luke expected Jess to realize that he was that guy. But Luke knew things weren't that clear cut now - he knew that Jess must have had at least one life time between this one and the one when they were last together. He could tell by looking at them that Caleb and Jess had been together before. Luke hadn't found Jess in her last lifetime, but maybe Caleb had.

_Luke, it's me. I know you're in there. Come outside. Now!_

The voice worked it's way into Luke's head like an icy mist. Luke groaned and covered his eyes. Starla. How had she found him here?

_Go away Starla! I told you before - keep away from me!_

_But I have a message for you, from Lavinia -_

_Don't call her that!_

Starla's chuckle reverberated around inside his head like an evil butterfly fluttering it's wings against the walls of his skull. _All right - if you're not man enough to face me, that's fine. But don't tell me you don't want to know what she has to say._

_Why should I believe that it's really a message from her? _Luke asked in his mind.

_You don't have to - the choice is yours. Either way the message is this; come home - it's where you belong._

Luke sheilded his mind from Starla and thought for a moment. Home. He had never had a home, not since he lost Jess all those years ago. Sure, he'd had places of residence - but he hadn't had a home in the true sense of the word. And now he was expected to believe that _Lavinia _wanted him to go back to her and the others. Either that was a lie, or she and Starla were playing a trick on him. The last time he'd seen her she'd gone to great lengths to tell him just how much she hated him - she didn't need him anymore, she hadn't needed him for a long time. But his instincts had been to protect her, he just couldn't shake them no matter how hard he tried, not after he had failed her so badly, so many times.

_I'm leaving now Luke. But remember - we are the closest thing you have to a family. You'll never be happy without us._

Luke sensed Starla's presence retreating and soon she was gone. He couldn't believe Starla actually believed that he'd never be happy without them - there was only one person he felt that way about. He just had to find out if she felt the same way. And he had to find out now.

**OOO**

Jess was shocked when she opened the door and found Luke stood on her porch.

'Luke? What are you doing here?'

'We need to talk.'

Jess shifted her weight from one foot to the other nervously. 'I don't think we have anything to talk about,' she said quietly.

Lukes eyes grew wide with surprise. 'You don't think there's anything to talk about? Nothing at all? I mean was I hallucinating last night? Did I imagine the whole thing?'

Jess shook her head, hiding her face behind her hair. 'I'm sorry Luke, it was a mistake - it shouldn't have happened.'

'How can you say that?' Luke asked. 'You were there, you know how it felt, it was right - you know it was Jess.'

'How can it be right?' Jess snapped. 'I have a boyfriend! And I cheated on him. Do you have any idea how terrible that makes me feel?'

'You're asking me if I know what it's like to feel gulit? Of course I do, I've done more terrible things in my lifetime than you could imagine - things that tear me up inside. I've broken the hearts of people I loved, so yeah I think I have an idea.'

'And there I was thinking you were the male bloodsucking equivalent of Mother Teresa,' Jess said. Luke couldn't help but crack a small smile before growing serious again. 'So... what? We just pretend last night never happened?'

'No, that's not what I'm saying,' Jess replied. 'Let's just not dwell on it, okay?'

'How am I supposed to do that Jess?' he asked sadly. 'I can't stop thinking about you. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you for over three hundred years.' The sorrow that haunted his eyes seemed to go on forever. 'Now that I've finally found you, you don't want anything to do with me.'

Jess couldn't stay mad at him. All she could think about was the way she'd felt in her dream when Luke had been killed, the overwhelming grief, the pain she had felt at the thought of never seeing him again. She stepped onto the porch and placed a hand on his earnestly, looking up into his sad, sad eyes.

'I'm so sorry for your loss Luke, what happened to you and your wife all those years ago - it wasn't fair. You deserved to have a happy life, to grow old together, you, her and your baby girl.'

'We have a second chance Jess,' Luke whispered.

'No Luke, there is no _we_. Don't you see, I'm not her. I'm Jess Devereaux. Jess Devereaux was born on the nineteenth of August 1987, she's never been married, never had a baby. The first time she ever set eyes on you was two weeks ago. Your wife, the girl you love and miss so much - I don't even know her name - but she died a really long time ago. She's gone Luke. Let her go.'

Tears welled up and fell from his eyes. 'But you're standing right in front of me,' he said in a whisper.

Jess fought back her own tears and squeezed his hand gently. It hurt her deep inside to see him cry, but she knew there was nothing she could do or say to make things better. 'Let her go Luke. It's time.'

Luke didn't reply, he just stared down at the ground as the tears rolled down his cheeks. Jess had never seen a vampire cry before. She didn't think they were capable of it.

'I know how much she loved you,' Jess said softly. 'You were everything to her. She wouldn't want to see you hurting like this.'

'Why are you talking like she was someone else?' Luke asked quietly, his voice tinged with pain.

'Because she was,' Jess told him. 'She was a wife and a mother and a _human_. I'm none of those things.'

Luke looked right into Jess's eyes. 'Our roles don't define who we are Jess, neither does our humanity or lack of it. It's our hearts that make us who we are. Death may steal all that other stuff away from us, but it leaves our hearts untouched. Our hearts will always be the same. You're still the girl I fell in love with when I was ten years old, regardless of the fact that you have a different name and a different birth date. It's you Jess. It will always be you.'

Jess didn't know what to say. So she just stood and watched as Luke stepped off the porch and walked away slowly into the night.


	12. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

The longest week of Jess's life was almost coming to an end. _One more hour,_ Jess thought silently. _One more hour and I can get out of here._ Dora was practically glued to her side as they walked into Mr Millers english class, she was talking a mile a minute about a dress she'd seen in one of her sisters catalogues.

Jess wasn't really listening but made attempts to humor her friend by mumbling the odd 'hmmm,' and 'really?' every once in a while. No one could be as excited about a dress as Dora was pretending to be, and Jess knew she was only going on about it so much to try and take Jess's mind off Caleb.

Dora had been with Jess when she'd approached Caleb that morning. Her jaw had dropped to the floor in a cartoon fashion when Caleb hurriedly backed away mumbling, 'I can't talk to you Jess. Just give me some space.'

Dora hadn't known a thing about what was going on and Jess had spent almost the whole of lunch time tearfully recounting the events of the last few days. She'd passed by Luke in the hallway and seen him in a couple of classes, but if he'd made any attempts to get Jess's attention - or to even acknowledge her - Jess hadn't noticed. He was acting as if she didn't even exist, which was probably for the best Jess decided.

But now they were going to have to acknowledge one another. Today was the deadline for their joint assignment. Jess cluched at her half of the essay nervously as she settled down into her seat and looked around the room for Luke. She knew what she'd written, while not exactly terrible, was nowhere near her usual standard. It wasn't like she hadn't tried, she'd just had too much going on over the last few days to really do her best work.

Glancing down at the words she'd written she prayed that it was up to scratch. Suddenly she sensed movement beside her as a small pile of papers dropped onto her desk. Jess looked up to see Luke stood a few inches away, one hand stuck casually in his pocket the other holding the strap of the backpack slung over his shoulder. He was looking over at the other side of the room, his face blank except for a mild note of disinterest that Jess was willing to bet was an act put on especially for her.

'Fifteen hundred words,' he said flatly. 'Plus footnotes. I didn't include a bibliography though.'

'Oh that's okay,' Jess replied forcing herself to sound normal and failing miserably. 'I took care of that.' Luke nodded, still not looking at her, before turning his back and taking a seat as far away from her as he could get. Jess put the pile of papers together, slid them into a plastic document folder and put it on the edge of her desk, ready for Mr Miller to collect. Jess spent most of the lesson watching the clock, each second seemed to tick by slower than the last.

Sighing with boredom Jess flicked through her notebook stopping at a page with the word _Vedauria _written across the top line. She had been trying to do some research into it, but her failure to find anything was reflected by the blank page in front of her. It was strange, but no one had really talked much about Laila's absence. It wasn't until Jess had overheard a couple of her friends talking that she realised Mr an Mrs Warner were keeping the truth about what was wrong with their daughter a secret. As far as her friends were concerned Laila was tucked up in her own bed suffering from a bout of very debilitating, very contagious flu.

Was it possible that the Warners suspected something magical had caused their daughters illness? Was that why they were being so secretive? Jess couldn't be sure. It was obvious to her that the Night People in this town were becoming more and more careless, was it really so unbelievable that someone may have worked out that there were witches living among them? The thought made Jess shudder. If someone had realised there was such a thing as witches, then the little number Tally and Petra had pulled could in no way be considered to be good press.

Jess shut the notebook and leaned forward letting her chin rest in her hand. She had to at least try to listen to what Mr Miller was saying - _who knows, _she thought. _It may even be interesting._ But it was no use, her mind was too tired to concentrate on anything for more than a minute, two minutes tops. Her thoughts began to wander to Luke. Calebs behaviour was understandable - Jess's revelation the day before had hit him like a bolt out of the blue - but why was Luke acting so cold, so distant? It wasn't like she had the right to complain, after all she had been the one who'd made it clear that nothing was going to happen between them.

Without realising what she was doing, Jess leaned back in her seat and glanced over her shoulder. She caught Luke looking right at her, the expression on his face indicating that he had been looking for quite a while. As soon as their eyes met Luke's head snapped to the front of the class, his face twisted into a frown as if he was mad at himself for letting her catch him. If Jess hadn't known better she would have sworn that he was blushing - but Luke was a vampire and vampires didn't blush.

A few minutes later the bell rang and Jess got to her feet, the sound of her chair scraping across the floor adding to the mild din being created by the rest of the class as they prepared to leave. Jess noticed Luke moving quickly, going out of his way not to have to go near her. Dora noticed too.

'What's his problem?' she asked with a frown.

'He's just realizing something I realized from the very start of this whole mess,' Jess sighed. 'We can't be friends.'

'Does that mean he has to ignore you like you've got some disgusting contagious disease or something?' Dora replied. 'If you ask me, he's just being rude.'

'Dora,' Jess said giving her friend a light dig on the arm. 'Don't be so mean. He's only doing to me the same thing I've been doing to him.'

'Maybe,' Dora said disapprovingly. 'But he's like, three hundred and whatever years old, he should be more mature than this.'

'Dora!' Jess hissed, this time giving her friend a not so light dig. 'Would you keep your voice down?'

'What did I say?' the doe eyed blonde girl asked sounding perplexed.

'As far as everyone else in this school is concerned,' Jess whispered leaning into her friend, 'Luke is seventeen. Just like the rest of us. Hearing you declaring his real age might freak people out a little, don't you think?'

Dora began dragging Jess towards the door by the cuff of her sleeve. 'Relax Jess. It's not like anyone's listening to us.' But that didn't put Jess's mind at ease. What if someone really did have suspicions about the existence of the Night World? Jess didn't want to take any chances - and blurting out the fact that one of their classmates was three hundred years old and counting in a place where any number of humans could hear? That was risky.

**OOO**

Diandra was sat on the porch, head in hands, when Jess arrived home.

'D?' Jess asked cautiously. 'What's wrong? Why aren't you at work?' Diandra sighed deeply, resting her elbows on her knees and propping her head up with her hands.

'I've been trying to find a Vedauria practitioner,' she replied.

'Any luck?' Jess asked slipping her back pack off her shoulder and settling down on the porch beside her Aunt.

'I found a couple,' Diandra said unenthusiasctically.

'And?' Jess asked sounding a little impatient. The sooner they sorted this whole mess out the better.

'And I contacted them, told them our situation, and you know what they did?'

Jess shrugged her shoulders in reply.

'They laughed.' Diandra shook her head in disbelief. 'They found it amusing that I was actually asking for their help.'

'What's so funny about that?' Jess asked 'I mean, didn't you tell them we were willing to pay?'

'They don't need our money,' Diandra replied. 'And apparently, they're too busy anyway.'

'Too busy to give us a spell? Like that's so time consuming!' Jess threw her hands up in frustration. Diandra patted her knee lightly. 'There has to be some other way,' Jess continued. 'Maybe... maybe... maybe we could go to the elders?'

Diandra's face was sad as she spoke. 'Normally I would agree with you, but do you realise how much trouble Tally would be in if they found out what she'd done?'

Jess frowned. 'Maybe they'll be leaniant. I mean, she's only fifteen.'

'Which makes the fact that she managed to cast a spell so powerful that it actually put someone in a coma all the more serious. The elders don't take too kindly to powerful witches who use their powers to hurt people. They would see a witch who was so young and so powerful as a threat, a danger.'

'Tally needs something to deter her from doing this again,' Jess said regretfully. 'Maybe handing her over to the elders wouldn't be such a bad thing.' The door behind them suddenly slammed shut with a deafening crash. Diandra and Jess turned sharply to find Tally stood on the doorstep.

'Thanks a lot!' Tally fumed angrily. 'It's nice to know who I can - or in this case _can't _- rely on!' Jess was not in the mood for a fight. Without saying a word she picked up her back pack and walked past Tally into the house. She didn't like ignoring Tally, but Jess didn't know what else to do. There was no point in lecturing her about the differences between right and wrong - Tally had heard it all before and it never made the slightest bit of difference to her. Jess couldn't just act like everything was normal either - everytime she looked at Tally her mind was flooded with visions of Laila. As she ran upstairs and into her bedroom Jess couldn't help but wonder if her relationship with her little sister was ruined forever.

**OOO**

'Look! See! Didn't I tell you it was gorgeous?' Dora shoved the catalogue in Jess's face enthusiastically. Jess swatted it away, grabbing a handful of popcorn. 'I'll never be able to afford it,' Dora went on. 'It's unbelievably expensive.' It was Friday night and Jess had escaped from her tension filled house to spend the night at Dora's.

'Are you even listening to me?' Dora asked waving a hand infront of her friends face.

'Of course I am,' Jess replied, turning her attention back to the blonde girl.

'Sure you are,' Dora said grumpily. She slapped the pages of the catalogue shut and crossed her arms across her chest. 'We were supposed to be having fun tonight Jess, but so far all you've done is stare out of the window.'

Jess shrugged and sighed. 'You're right. I'm sorry Luke, it's just - '

'Stop right there!' Dora screamed waving her hands up in the air.

'What?' Jess asked in surprise. 'Why are you freaking out?'

'Jess, you just called me _Luke.'_

This time it was Jess who folded her arms grumpily. 'Oh, I did not.'

Dora started to laugh, 'You did! I swear it!'

Jess reached for the catalogue and opened it at the kitchen appliance section. 'You're imagining things,' she replied matter of factly, pretending to be engrossed by blenders and steak knives.

'Why would _I _imagine that? _You're _the one who's crazy about him.'

Jess scowled at Dora, throwing the catalogue in her direction. 'I am not crazy about him Dora,' Jess said insistantly. 'This whole situation is really awkward - I can't believe you'd be so insensitive.'

'I didn't mean to be,' Dora replied. 'It's just this whole thing is kind of weird. But, Jess, you did call me Luke. I guess I don't need to ask what - or should that be _who _- you're thinking about.'

Jess swung her legs up onto the window seat she was sat on and hugged her knees up to her chest. 'I'm thinking about a lot of things. And, okay yes, Luke is on the list, but so is Caleb.'

'You should call him,' Dora said shoveling a dainty handful of popcorn into her mouth.

'Who?' Jess asked.

'Caleb,' Dora replied, spitting popcorn crumbs everywhere.

'Dora, you are so gross,' Jess said sounding disgusted, as she wiped away a piece of soggy popcorn that had landed on her cheek.

'Sorry,' Dora said, mouth still full to bursting and spilling forth a further spray of crumbs.

'Ewww!' Jess exclaimed, 'You got me in the eye that time!' She grabbed a tissue and proceeded to dab at the corner of her eye as Dora errupted into a fit of giggles.

'Oops, sorry again!'

Jess couldn't help but laugh with her. 'Be careful,' she warned through her giggles. 'You might choke!'

The sound of the phone ringing made Jess jump. 'Would you get that?' Dora mumbled, wiping at her mouth, still trying to chew the remaining popcorn. Jess reached over to the night stand and picked up the reciever. 'Hello?' She listened silently for the callers response then cupped a hand over the mouth piece. 'It's for you,' she told Dora.

'Of course it is,' Dora replied taking a sip of water. 'This is my house remember.'

'I think it's Danny Matthews,' Jess whispered, her face screwing up with mild revulsion.

'Give me that,' Dora said lunging forward and grabbing the phone from Jess's hand. 'Danny, hi!'

Jess went back to her spot on the window seat as Dora chatted in a hushed voice. Gazing out of the window her thoughts returned to her problems. Caleb, Luke, and Tally. Jess could hardly believe that she was counting Caleb as a problem, but he had told her he needed space, that he didn't want to talk to her. In Jess's book that amounted to a problem, a big problem. The look on his face when she'd told him that she had kissed Luke was one of pure sorrow. She had hurt him badly, and there was no way for her to take it back.

_If only he knew, _Jess thought sadly. _If only he knew how I'd felt when Luke and I kissed. Like we were the only two people on the planet, that we were meant to be together. It had been a perfect moment... If Caleb knew that it would hurt him so badly. _Jess balled her hands into fists and pounded them against her head.

At that moment Dora looked up, and the goofy little smile fell from her face to be replaced by a look of concern. 'Look Danny,' she began. 'I'm sorry but I really can't talk right now. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?' A second later Dora was hanging up the phone and shuffling across the carpet on her knees, stopping by Jess.

'Jess! What are you doing!' she cried taking hold of her friends wrists and pushing them down away from her face. 'Why are you hitting yourself like that? Have you gone crazy?'

'I don't know,' Jess replied sadly. 'Maybe I have! It would explain a few things - like why I turned into aggressive psycho bitch at The Onyx, why I kissed Luke. I'm insane - that must be it.'

Dora sighed deeply. 'You're not insane Jess. The whole Malachi thing - okay I wasn't there so I didn't get to see you in all your psycho bitch glory - but from what you told me, you just reached the end of your fuse, a fuse that's been burning for a long time. That doesn't mean you're crazy. And Luke... well... you guys have a bond, a very deep connection. It was bound to happen sooner or later.'

'How do I fix this Dora?' Jess asked solemnly.

'Like I said,' Dora replied. 'Call Caleb. You guys need to talk. He shouldn't just shut you out and hide away brooding. That's not going to help matters.'

Jess nodded. 'You're right. But speaking of calling people,' Jess said with curiosity, 'Why would Danny Matthews be calling you?'

Dora crossed her arms defensively. 'Why wouldn't he be calling me?'

'Uh...because he thinks you're a total weirdo?' Jess ventured, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'No he doesn't,' Dora insisted. 'His friends might, but he doesn't.'

'Oh sure,' Jess said sarcastically. 'Like those guys have even one opinion that differs from the others. It's like they share a collective brain, an extremely underdeveloped brain. You're not dating him are you?'

Dora got to her feet and went to get the phone for Jess. 'Lets not concentrate on my love life tonight Jess. Yours is the one in serious need of some rescue and repair.'

**OOO**

Jess stared at Calebs profile, illuminated in the soft moonlight glow filtering through the windsheild of his car, listening to him intently as he spoke. 'It's over Jess. It has to be.' She was dumbstruck. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

'No, no it can't be. I love you Caleb.' The words came out in a choked whisper, and hung in the air as if there was no where for them to go. It was just over an hour since Jess had called Caleb from Dora's house and now they were sat in his car in her driveway. Breaking up.

'I love you too,' Caleb whispered finally, his voice breaking a little as he struggled to keep the words calm and even. 'But you're not meant to be with me.' Jess practically leapt across the car and grabbed hold of his hands.

'How can you say that!' she cried. 'You don't know that Caleb!'

He suddenly looked angry, the beginnings of bitterness gleaming in his eyes. 'If I was the one for you, you never would have kissed Luke.'

Jess let her head drop to rest against his shoulder. 'I can't explain why I did that. I wish I could but I can't. Everything is so crazy right now, but if there's one thing I know for sure, one thing I know for certain, it's that I can't live without you. You're everything to me Caleb.'

Caleb turned his hands in hers and held onto them gently. 'I'll always be here for you Jess. Always. I may not be _the _soulmate, the one you're meant to fall in love with lifetime after lifetime. But I'll always be _one _of your soulmates. One of the people you share your lives with again and again. I'll always be your best friend, and I'll always be here when you need me.'

'I won't let you do this Caleb!' Jess sobbed. 'I won't let you tell me that I'm not meant to be with you! Can you honestly imagine being with someone else? Is that was this is about - you not wanting me anymore? Because if it is then just say -'

'It's not about that,' Caleb interrupted. 'I can't imagine loving anyone more than I love you. But when I listen to you talking about Luke, I don't know, there's something there, something that goes beyond what you're actually saying. Something that tells me you love him more than you could ever love someone else.'

Jess's jaw hung open, she was speechless. 'It's just a feeling I get Jess,' Caleb told her sadly. 'I know you better than anyone. And despite of what you may say about him, when Luke's around there's this depth of emotion that just radiates from the two of you. I never really thought about it until you told me what the deal was with you guys. I guess I was just so secure in our relationship that I thought nothing would ever come between us. I was wrong.'

Jess and Caleb looked into one anothers eyes sadly, their hands intertwined on their laps. 'Please don't leave me,' Jess whispered finally.

'I'm not leaving you Jess, I'll always be around. Just not as your boyfriend.' Jess's tears spilled smoothly down her face, pale in the moonlight. Calebs eyes had welled, but he fought to hold back the tears. He lifted Jess's hands to his lips and kissed them gently. 'Bye Jess,' he whispered.

Jess forced herself to climb out of the car, numb from shock and shaking from head to toe. She watched as his car reversed out of the driveway and disappeared down the road. It suddenly felt like something was missing - as if her heart was gone. It wasn't the way people described it, she realized. It didn't feel like her heart had been ripped out. Instead, it felt as though it had died, suddenly, quietly, disappearing without a trace.


	13. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

Diandra's face was set with concentration as she carefully carved intricate symbols into a tall white pillar candle. It was Saturday afternoon and she and Jess were sat on opposite sides of the workbench in her store room. 'Are you nearly done?' she asked Jess. Jess didn't answer. Instead she gazed off into space, half heartedly grinding up a mixture of herbs with a mortar and pestle.

Diandra looked up from the candle, took one glance at Jess and sighed. It was obvious that her niece was seriously upset about something. Diandra had questioned her about it when she'd arrived earlier, but Jess had quickly changed the subject by pointing out that they had more important things to be getting on with. They had decided to do ritual healing ceremonies for Laila until they could find a way to reverse the effects of Tally's spell.

'Jess?' Diandra said, reaching across the bench and giving her a nudge. 'Are you nearly done?'

'What?' Jess replied, sounding a little startled. 'Oh. Yeah.' She looked down at the powdery heap of herbs and nodded. 'I'm finished.'

'Good,' Diandra replied, reaching across and taking the mortar and pestle away from her. Jess tapped her fingers on the bench and looked up at the clock on the wall.

'Dora should be here soon,' she said trying her best to sound cheerful.

'Well as soon as she arrives,' Diandra began, 'we'll get started.' For the healing ceremony to work they needed to generate a substantial amount of magical energy and three witches would be better than two. Four would have been even better but Diandra and Jess had agreed that all those who took part in the ceremony had to have one hundred per cent pure and honest intentions towards the subject. For this reason inviting Tally to join in was out of the question. Her involvement would more than likely taint the magic and stop it from working the way they had desired.

This realization had been unsettling to Jess and Diandra, to say the least. To think of someone they were so close to, someone they loved so much as being a source of contamination saddened them deeply. Jess thought back to the anger that had burned in her sisters eyes the day before when she'd overheard what Jess had said about handing her over to the elders. _What does she expect? _Jess thought angrily. _For us to turn a blind eye while she does as she pleases, no matter how terrible the consequences?_

Diandra began to set the altar up, ready for Dora's arrival. Smoothing a green cloth across the bench she placed the pillar candle in the centre and anointed it with a few drops of oil from a bronze bowl. Jess opened her bag and pulled out a group photograph that had been taken on a school camping trip a year ago. She, Dora and Caleb were barely visable, huddled at the back on the edge of the group. In the centre was Laila, smiling radiantly at the camera. Carefully she cut Laila out of the picture and began to wrap her image up with a white ribbon.

Diandra looked over and saw what Jess was doing. 'Jess!' Diandra yelled. 'Not yet. We're haven't prepared everything.'

Confusion crossed Jess's face and Diandra pointed at the photograph and ribbon. Jess glanced down at what she was holding in her hands. 'Oh,' she said, suddenly seeming embarrased. 'Sorry D, I didn't even realize I was doing that.'

'What is wrong with you?' Diandra asked worriedly. 'Your head is really in the clouds today. Don't you realize how important this is? If we want to help Laila we have to be totally focused.'

Jess nodded. 'I know. And I'm sorry.'

'So are you going to tell me what's bugging you?' Diandra asked.

'Well I would, but I'm kind of sick of talking about it. And I'm sick of thinking about it. But I can't help it. It's like it's taking over my life.'

'What is?' Diandra pushed, growing more curious.

'Let's just forget it okay?' Jess said throwing the photograph and ribbon onto the altar. 'Like you said we need to be focusing on this, not on my problems.'

'Is this about that guy you were telling me about?' Diandra asked hand on hip.

'Yes and no,' Jess replied with a weary sigh. Diandra raised an eyebrow quizically. Jess took a deep breath before speaking again. 'I may as well tell you. You're going to find out sooner or later. Caleb and I broke up last night.'

'Oh Jess,' Diandra said sounding genuinely upset. 'I take it this has something to do with the other guy? You want to be with him now?'

'No!' Jess cried, practically screaming at the top of her lungs. 'That's not it at all! Why does everyone assume that!' The sound of the bell above the door jingling alerted them to Dora's arrival.

'We'll talk about this later,' Diandra said giving Jess a gentle pat on the shoulder. Jess took a deep breath and slumped into a chair in the corner of the room. A ritual healing ceremony was the last thing she felt like doing right now. If she had her way she would be locked away in her room moping.

A moment or two passed and Dora hadn't entered the storeroom. Diandra put the finishing touches to the altar then craned her towards the door. 'Come on through Dora!' No reply.

'Maybe it's a customer,' Jess suggested.

'Yeah maybe,' Diandra replied eyeing up a couple of incense sticks critically. 'Would you go through and take care of it.'

Jess pushed herself up onto her feet and nodded. 'Sure,' she said unenthusiastically, before trudging over to the door and walking into the front of the store. As she had suspected it wasn't Dora. It was two girls. They had their backs to her, examining a shelf of organic face masks and body scrubs. Jess could tell they were probably about her age.

'Can I help you?' Jess asked trying to sound friendly and professional. Something in the way they turned alerted Jess immediately. They each had the predatory grace of a cat, almost lazy, yet so sure of themselves. Vampires, Jess realized. Definitely vampires. Both girls had dark hair and were dressed casually in black jeans and dark shirts, but apart from the air of danger that rolled off them like an invisible fog, that was where their similarities ended.

One was short, the other comparitively tall. The shorter of the two had dark eyes that burned like black fire, while the other had frosty grey eyes that chilled to the bone like ice. A dark smile curled at the corners of the short girls lips. 'We're just browsing,' she said in a low husky voice. 'Taking a look around. Sizing things up.'

Jess nodded stiffly, all traces of her friendly and professional demeanour gone. While the short girl smiled at Jess sinisterly, the taller girl stared intently. Her ice cold eyes roamed over Jess from top to bottom, as if she was slowly cataloguing every aspect of Jess, storing it all away in her memory.

'Well don't take too long,' Jess told them, refusing to be intimidated. 'We're closing up early today.' For a moment Jess wondered if they had been sent by Malachi. Perhaps he'd decided he was too nice a guy to beat up a girl and had sent two of his fanged female friends instead. Jess couldn't be sure though, she had never laid eyes on them before.

Finally the taller girl spoke. 'You work here?" she asked, her voice cold.

'No,' Jess replied shortly. She did not want to get involved in a conversation with these girls. The way they were looking at her made her feel like a bug under a microscope, a bug that was about to have all it's legs pulled off one by one. 'My aunt owns this place,' she added, hoping that the girls would hurry up and leave.

'So where do you keep the good stuff?' the dark eyed girl asked, walking across the store, her finger tracing along the length of the shelf beside her.

'This is all good stuff,' Jess replied coldly - she was liking this girl less and less by the second. The girl chuckled huskily and picked up a pink perfume bottle, turning in her slender hands a couple of times before setting it back and down and turning to Jess with a knowing stare.

'I have it on good authority that this place is more than a cosmetics store.'

Jess folded her arms defensively. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'If you say so,' the girl said, suddenly seeming bored. She looked around the store for a couple of seconds before allowing her gaze to return to Jess, a reknewed interest gleaming in the depths of her dark eyes. 'But maybe there is something you do know that's of interest to us - or should I say _someone. _

_Great._ Jess thought to herself. _They are a couple of henchwomen sent by Malachi._

'Luke Maguire,' the dark eyed girl said boldly.

Jess couldn't hide the tremor of shock that rolled through her body and the two vampires exchanged a long glance, the shorter girl raising an eyebrow at the taller one as if to say _I told you so._

'Yeah I know him,' Jess said, proud at how steady her voice was as she spoke. 'Not that well though. He goes to my school.'

The girl with the chilling eyes made a small snorting sound and smirked slightly. There was no humor in the smirk - it was cold and angry.

'So you're not friends with him?' the shorter girl asked.

Jess was stumped. What was she supposed to say? Ever since Luke had arrived she'd made it clear time and again that she did not want Luke as a friend, nor did she consider him to be one. Now she had the overwhelming urge to say that yes, he was a friend - which was ridiculous in light of the fact that now he no longer wanted to be friends with her anyway. So why did she want to tell these girls that they were friends. Was it jealousy? Possesiveness? Did she see these two girls as rivals? Jess pushed the thoughts away angrily as she squirmed silently under the probing stares of the two vampires.

'Well?' the girl prompted. 'Are you friends with him or not?'

'Not really,' Jess said finally. 'No.'

The sound of the jingling bell above the door made them all look towards the entrance of the store. Dora skipped in, her long blonde hair whipping around behind her, a bright smile on her face. The smile faded when she saw the way the two girls were looking at her.

'Hi Dora,' Jess said quickly. 'Go on through to the back. Diandra's waiting.' Dora nodded, before walking between the two girls towards the storeroom, eyeing each one suspicously as she did so. When Dora was safely inside the storeroom, Jess walked to the front door and held it open. 'You'll have to leave now. We're closing for the day.'

The two vampires stared at one another. Jess knew they were communicating telepathically and let out an angry sigh. _How rude!_ she thought to herself. Finally the two girls broke eye contact and strode over to the door gracefully. The taller one stepped outside first, her cold eyes meeting Jess's for the briefest moment as she passed by her. The shorter one stopped inches away from Jess and stared at her intensely.

'What is your name by the way?' she asked curiously.

'Jessica,' she replied coldly. She did not want this girl to know any personal details about her - and that included her name, but she could hardly lie.

'Well, Jessica,' the girl said, spitting her name out as if it tasted bad. 'Will you be seeing Luke anytime soon?'

Jess nodded. 'At school probably.'

The dark eyed girls face lit up in a mocking grin. 'Oh of course, school,' she said sarcastically. 'Well if you do see him _at school _tell him Starla say's hi.'

'And Lavinia,' the cold eyed girl added flatly.

'If I speak to him,' Jess replied shuting the door on them, 'then I will.' Quickly she slammed the door and slid the dead bolt across, flipping the sign from open to close. Before heading into the storeroom Jess allowed herself one last glance at the two dark haired vampires as they glided smoothly down the street. Were they really friends of Luke, she wondered. Girlfriends even? The stab of jealousy she had felt earlier flaired back up and Jess let out a harsh sigh. This was ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous. She was supposed to be moping over the sudden spilt from the love of her life, not getting jealous and possesive over Luke.

Diandra stuck her head around the storeroom door. 'Jess come on,' she sadi quickly. 'We have work to do.' Vowing to put all thoughts of Luke, Caleb, and the unnerving Starla and Lavinia to the back of her mind Jess walked over to the storeroom. It was time to make some magic.


	14. Chapter 20

**A/N – **Finally an update! Kinda short, but it's the best I can do at the moment :)

**Chapter Twenty**

'Thanks Ray, I appreciate this. Bye.' Luke scrawled a number on a notepad and hung up the phone. It was dark outside and he was so hungry. He hadn't fed all day. He'd been too busy chasing after old friends from the night world. The man he'd just been speaking to was Ray Burrows, the most clued up witch he knew. Despite distancing himself from Jess since their talk on her porch the other night, he still wanted to help her. He just couldn't show her how much, how deeply, he cared for her. Remembering the way he had cried in front of her that night made him feel like such a fool. He always remembered the things she said to him, every word that passed her perfect lips, every expression on her flawless face. They were ingrained in his heart, and all those sleepless nights he'd had provided plenty of hours for them to float through his mind, again and again.

_You're old. Like really, really old...All vampires are corrupt, Luke...Don't you see, I'm not her...Let her go, Luke. It's time._

Jess had tried so hard to push him away, and now it was time for him to face reality. She didn't want him. His heart twisted painfully at the thought, but there was nothing he could do about it. He'd just have to do what she had told him to do. He'd have to let her go. He had to face up to the fact that she wasn't his anymore. He wouldn't be able to do that in this town though. It would be too painful. He had only come here because it seemed peaceful and quiet, the ideal place for him to finish high school. Discovering Jess had been an accident. _A happy accident_, he thought sadly. _At least I know that she's happy now, or at least she will be once I'm out of here._

He would stay just long enough to make sure that Malachi wouldn't hurt her, or try to exact any other kind of revenge for what had happened at The Onyx. Then he'd go. He'd find another town to finish school in. Then Jess would be free to get on with her life, and he'd get on with his. But he'd never forget about her. Never. There would never be another girl quite like her. Luke smiled sadly at that thought, then picked up the phone and dialled another number.

**000**

Jess was stood at her locker on Monday morning, sorrowfully contemplating whether or not to take down the photograph of her and Caleb that was stuck on the inside of the door. She wondered if Caleb had taken his photograph of the two of them down in his. Hearing the sound of someone quietly clearing their throat behind her, Jess turned and came face to face with Luke, his face just as blank as it had been in English on Friday. But there was something in his eyes that he was trying to hide, a new kind of sadness. Jess noticed it and felt guilty. She knew she'd crushed his heart and she felt bad about that, but what could she do?

'Hi,' she said gently. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.

'Here,' he said holding it out to her.

'What is it?' Jess asked taking it cautiously.

'It's the number of someone who can help you,' Luke replied.

'A...?' Jess trailed off. She didn't have to say the word _witch. _Luke knew what she was talking about. He nodded.

'She deals in a lot of shady stuff, but she owes a favor to a friend of mine.'

'And this friend of yours would call that favor in for me?' Jess asked.

'No,' Luke replied. 'He'd call it in for me.' Jess nodded again.

'Well, thanks. We sort of know what type of magic we're dealing with now,' she lowered her voice to a whisper and stepped into Luke, speaking confidentially. 'It's called Vedauria. Do you think this witch would know anything about it?'

Luke looked thoughtful. 'I don't know. I've never heard of it myself, but it's worth a shot right?'

Jess smiled up at him. 'Thank you so much Luke. You didn't have to do this.'

Luke smiled back at her, unable to stop himself. They were stood so close to one another, talking in hushed tones so no one would pick up on what they were saying. It felt so intimate, and so nice.I don't like seeing innocent humans suffer at the hands of people from the night world anymore than you do Jess. I had to do something to help.'

At that moment Jess felt someone watching them. She tore her eyes away from Luke and looked across the hall to see Caleb walking by his eyes glued on the two of them. Jess's heart sank. _Well this must look just so cosy, _she thought sarcastically. Luke looked over and noticed him too. 'Hey Caleb,' he said raising a hand and waving.

'Hi,' Caleb replied coldly before looking away and quickening his pace, disappearing amongst the crowd of students.

'Did I miss something?' Luke asked turning back to Jess, seeming perplexed.

Jess sighed. 'Caleb and I broke up,' she said quietly.

'Oh,' Luke replied, not knowing what to say. Jess stepped back from him and eyed him warily.

Luke quickly raised his hands defensively, immediately realizing what she must be thinking. 'Hey,' he said almost forcefully. 'I'm not seeing this as an opportunity to move in on you if that's what you're thinking.'

'I never said that,' Jess replied in a tone that said that was obviously what she had been thinking. She turned to her locker and began grabbing books out of it.

'You'll get back together,' Luke said with a quiet certainty, and a hint of sadness that he just couldn't hide. 'You're meant to be together.'

Jess looked at him as though he was speaking Chinese. 'I thought you thought you and I were meant to be together,' her voice was slightly harsh, without her meaning it to be.

'Did I ever say that to you?' Luke asked, the harshness of her comment mirrored and amplified in his. 'I told you I loved you Jess - or at least who you used to be. But that doesn't mean we're meant to be together now. Maybe at one time I thought that it did, but I don't anymore. That's more than obvious.'

Jess looked at him wordlessly, shocked by his sudden coldness. 'Good luck with her,' he said gesturing to the slip of paper with the witch's number on it. 'I'll see you around.' With that Luke walked off, leaving Jess alone. She watched him go, still speechless. _He loved who I used to be?_ Jess thought. Why was that comment so hurtful to her, she wondered. Hadn't she been the one to make such a big deal about pointing out that she wasn't that person anymore?

Jess was suddenly curious. What had been so great about that previous incarnation of her that had made Luke fall so hopelessly, so deeply in love with her that he would cling to that love for centuries? And why hadn't Jess, as she was now, measured up? That was what he'd been insinuating wasn't in? That the person she was now wasn't as precious to him as the person she had been. Tears stung Jess's eyes and she was instantly filled by anger at herself. She was angry at herself for getting upset by Luke telling her he didn't want her. Less than a week ago he had told her she'd always been the one he'd loved, and always would be. Was he lying now? Trying to save face?

Whatever it was, it had upset Jess in a way that she hadn't expected and couldn't explain. Then she remembered the vampires that came into Diandra's store that weekend. She had meant to mention them to Luke if he spoke to her, but she'd totally forgotten._ Maybe I should try and catch up with him, _she thought. She sighed angrily. Now she was wanting to chase after him just to pass on some stupid little message that wasn't even important? Why? The answer jumped right out at Jess, as if it had been waiting with eagerness for just the right opportunity to spring up and surprise her. The reason she wanted to chase after him, was because being near him, talking to him, always made her feel so good - she enjoyed being around him, but she'd never admit it to herself.

That night he'd come over to work on the essay when he'd left after the argument, Jess had wanted him to come back, but when she wondered why she had batted the thought away angrily. Now Jess realized something. It wasn't anything as dramatic or grand as love that stretched across the ages - that was an idea Jess found too unnerving to give any credit to. But what Jess realized was also kind of unnerving. She had a monster sized crush on Luke.

The thought that maybe she'd had a crush on Luke and was attracted to him wasn't a new one. She'd realized that before. But in that moment Jess was realizing that her crush was graduating from something that had been unobtrusive and fairly mild, something that she was able to ignore, to the type of crush that had you counting the seconds until the next time you got to see that person, the kind of crush where just a glimpse of them made your day.

Once again Jess looked at the photograph of her and Caleb, both smiling happily, their arms entwined around one another. She groaned inwardly. Why did things have to get so complicated?


End file.
